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The New View of Hell. 






y; 



THE 



New View of Hell. 



SHOWING 



ITS NATURE, WHEREABOUTS, DURATION, AND 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 












BY 
B. F. BARRETT, 



IIH2JS 



Author of "Lectures on the New Dispensation," "The Golden Reed," 
"Letters to Beecher on the Divine Trinity," Etc., Etc 




PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1872. 



**$•> 



IRA**! 
HESS 

flMOTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Lippincott's Press, 
Philadelphia. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

I. — The New Dispensation 9 

II. — The Old Doctrine of Hell 26 

III.— The New View 36 

IV. — The Scripture Argument. — Sheol, Hades, 

Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire .... 46 
V.— Hell.— The Chosen Home of All Who 

go There 73 

VI. — The Duration of Hell 87 

VII. — Some Evidence of its Duration. — Philo- 
sophical and Scriptural 100 

VIII. — Why Cannot the Ruling Love be Changed 

After Death ? 112 

IX. — Displays of the Divine Benignity in Hell 125 
X. — Is Hell to Undergo any Change ? If so, 

of what Nature ? 145 

XI. — The Devil and Satan 163 

XII. — Practical Bearings of the Question.... 177 

XIII. — How to Escape Hell 193 

5 



PREFACE. 



There are few subjects within the compass of revealed or 
speculative Theology, upon which inquiring minds have been 
more exercised within the last hundred years, than the sub- 
ject of Hell. And there are few, perhaps, which have been 
the occasion of more strifes and divisions in the churches, 
which have caused more trouble to Christian believers, or 
upon which there are at this moment more anxiety, doubt 
and disagreement among religious teachers themselves. 

There is no doubt that the popular mind of Christendom 
has undergone a considerable change on this, as on many 
other subjects, since the commencement of the present cen- 
tury. The old representations of the Divine justice, and of 
the condition of the wicked in the great Hereafter, would 
hardly be listened to with patience — certainly not with satis- 
faction — by any intelligent Christian congregation of to-day. 

"The idea which men once had of hell and of divine jus- 
tice," says the distinguished occupant of Plymouth Pulpit, 
"was a nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the 
hellish brood itself. And it was an atrocious slander on 
God. I do not wonder that men have reacted from these 

horrors — I honor them for it." 

7 



8 PREFACE. 

But what have the Christian teachers of to-day to offer as 
a substitute for the old idea, which is confessedly becoming 
obsolete in nearly all of the churches ? Many of them, 
nothing — literally nothing, that can at once satisfy the reason 
of thoughtful inquirers, and meet the demands of the lan- 
guage of Scripture. And some are frank enough to confess 
their destitution. Said a distinguished Presbyterian clergy- 
man, writing on this subject some time ago : " It is all dark, 
dark, dark, to my soul ; and I cannot disguise it." 

The aim of the present work is to unfold and present the 
New view of Hell, as set forth in the theological writings of 
Emanuel Swedenborg ; to show that it is at once rational 
and Scriptural, in harmony with the perfect love and wisdom 
of God, as well as with the teachings of human experience 
and the profoundest spiritual philosophy ; and that its prac- 
tical influence upon the character of believers, cannot be 
otherwise than beneficent. 

How far I have succeeded in this, the reader himself must 
judge. But if I have achieved even a partial success, and 
presented the subject in a light to relieve and profit only a 
few troubled souls, I shall be more than satisfied — I shall be 
thankful. 

B. F. B. 

Philadelphia, November 15, 1871. 



THE 



New View of Hell, 



i. 

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 

THE theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are 
regarded by many— by all, indeed, who have read 
and studied them with care — as a new revelation. They 
boldly claim for themselves this distinction, and chal- 
lenge a candid examination of their claim in the light 
of Scripture, reason, philosophy, history, and all human 
experience. They are held to be (and this, too, is their 
own claim) a new Dispensation of spiritual truth : that 
Dispensation referred to in the Apocalypse under the 
symbol of the New Jerusalem which John saw coming 
down from God out of heaven. They are believed to 
contain, not merely the reasonings and conclusions of a 
great and pious mind — not a theological or doctrinal 
system wrought out by patient labor and hard study, but 
a system of spiritual truth so luminous in its nature and 
so grand in its proportions, as to be itself the fulfillment 

of the prophecy concerning the second coming of Him 

9 



IO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

who is "the Light of the world." They are declared to 
be a revelation of n£w and heavenly truth made by the 
Lord himself through his own chosen servant, whom He 
raised up and prepared for this work, and in due time 
graciously and wonderfully illumined by his Spirit. 

The stupendous system of truth, therefore, contained 
in the writings of this man, is not to be considered his, 
but the Lord's. He was but the chosen instrument to 
receive and make known to men, truths which no amount 
of labor or study could ever have enabled him to dis- 
cover. Hear what the seer himself says on this subject : 

"Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, 
and nevertheless has foretold that He would come and 
establish a New Church which is the New Jerusalem, it 
follows that He will do so by means of a man who 
can not only receive these doctrines in his understanding 
but can also publish them by the press. 

"That the Lord manifested Himself before me his 
servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward 
opened the eyes of my spirit and so intromitted me into 
the spiritual world, granted me to see the heavens and 
the hells, also to converse with angels and spirits, and 
this continuously now for several years, I affirm in truth ; 
as also, that, from the first day of that calling I have not 
received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines 
of that Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone 
while I read the Word." {True Christian Religion, 779.) 

And elsewhere in his writings he repeats the same 



THE NE W D IS PENS A TION. 1 1 

statement — in substance if not in words. Thus in his 
preface to the Apocalypse Revealed, he says : 

" Any one may see that the Apocalypse could no how 
be explained but by the Lord alone, since every word 
of it contains arcana which never could be known with- 
out some special illumination and consequent revelation. 
Wherefore it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of 
my spirit and to teach me. It must not, therefore, be 
supposed that I have given any explication of my own, 
nor that even of any angel, but only what I have had 
communicated to me from the Lord alone/ ' 

And in his treatise on " The Intercourse between the 
Soul and the Body," he relates a conversation that he 
once had with "a man of reason," explaining to him 
how it was that from a philosopher he became a theolo- 
gian. After telling him that it was " for the same reason 
that fishermen became the disciples and apostles of the 
Lord," adding that he also "from early youth had been 
a spiritual fisherman;" and after explaining what this 
means, and confirming what he says by citing passages 
from the Word which speak of fishermen, unfolding at 
the same time their spiritual meaning, his interrogator 
" raised his voice and said : 

"•Now I can understand why the Lord called and 
chose fishermen to be his disciples ; and therefore I do 
not wonder that He has also called and chosen you, 
since, as you have observed, you were from early youth 
a fisherman in a spiritual sense, that is, an investigator 



12 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

of natural truths. The reason that you are now become 
an investigator of spiritual truths, is, that these are 
founded on the former. ' To this he added, being a man 
of reason, that ' the Lord alone knows who is the 
proper person to apprehend and teach or communicate 
the truths which should be revealed for his New 
Church.' "— Ibid. 20. 

Swedenborg further claims that this new revelation 
made through him as a chosen medium, is in fulfillment 
of the prediction made by the Lord himself, concerning 
his second coming, which was to be in the clouds of 
heaven. This coming, he says, is not to be external and 
natural, cognizable by the eye of sense ; but internal and 
spiritual, cognizable by the understanding and the heart. 
It is to be a coming of the Word of God, that is, of the 
deeper meanings of the Word — a coming of its spiritual 
or heavenly sense to the minds and hearts of men, and 
exerting upon them a new and renovating power. And 
the clouds in or upon which it is said He would come, 
are the clouds of Scripture — the obscurities, more or less 
dense, of the literal sense, in or upon which the spiritual 
and true sense comes as the sun's light through a cloud. 
To cite again his own language : 

" It is the prevailing opinion at this day [1770] in 
every church, that the Lord, when He comes to the last 
judgment, will appear in the clouds of heaven with 
angels and the sound of trumpets ; that He will gather 
together all who are then dwelling on the earth, as well 



THE NEW DISPENSATION. 13 

as all who are deceased, and will separate the evil from 
the good, as a shepherd separates the goats from the 
sheep \ that then He will cast the evil, or the goats, into 
hell, and raise up the good, or the sheep, into heaven ; 
and further that He will, at the same time, create a new 
visible heaven and a new habitable earth, and on the latter 
He will cause a city to descend, which is to be called the 
New Jerusalem, and is to be built according to the de- 
scription given in the Revelation (Ch. xxi.) of jasper 
and gold ; and the foundation of its walls of every precious 
stone ; and its height, breadth and length to be equal, 
each twelve thousand furlongs ; and that all the elect are 
to be gathered together into this city, both those that are 
then alive, and those that have died since the beginning 
of the world ; and that the latter will then return into 
their bodies, and enjoy everlasting bliss in that magnifi- 
cent city, as in their heaven. This is the prevailing 
opinion of the present day, in all Christian churches, 
respecting the coming of the Lord and the last judg- 
ment." — True Christian Religion, n . 768. 

And a little further on he says : 

"That the second coming of the Lord, is a coming, not 
in person, but in the Word which is from Him, and is 
Himself. — It is written in many places that the Lord will 
come in the clouds of heaven; as Matt. xvii. 5; xxiv. 
30; xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62; Luke ix. 34, 35; xxi. 27; 
Rev. i. 7; xiv. 14; Dan. vii. 13; but no one has here- 
tofore known what is meant by the clouds of heaven, 



14 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and hence mankind have believed that the Lord will 
appear to them in person. But it has remained undis- 
covered to this day, that the Word in its literal sense is 
meant by the clouds of heaven ; and that the spiritual 
sense of the Word is meant by the power and glory 
in which also the Lord is to come. . . . Now since the 
spiritual sense of the Word has been opened to me 
by the Lord, and it has been granted me to be with 
angels and spirits in their world as one of themselves, 
it has been revealed to me that the clouds of heaven sig- 
nify the Word in its natural sense ; and glory, the W T ord 
in its spiritual sense \ and power, the effectual operation 
of the Lord by the Word." — Ibid., n. 776. 

There can be no doubt, then, about Swedenborg's 
claim — extraordinary though it be, and incredible as it 
may seem to those who have not examined his writings. 
He claims to have been called of the Lord in an extra- 
ordinary manner, and to have been specially illumined 
by his Spirit, to make a new revelation ; — a revelation, 
that is, of new and heavenly truth concerning Himself, 
his Word, the nature of heaven and hell, and the con- 
dition of different classes of men in the great Hereafter. 
He declares that it is the Lord who opened the eyes of 
his spirit ; that it is the Lord who taught him the true 
meaning of the Word, and what doctrines to promul- 
gate ; that the Lord had actually come (agreeably to his 
promise), to establish a New Church by means of the 
doctrines which it was given him to receive, understand 



THE NEW DISPENSATION. 15 

and publish to the world \ that these doctrines were not 
his own — not the result of any labor or study on his 
part, nor received from any angel, but communicated to 
him by the Lord alone. " From the first day of that 
calling," he says, "I have not received anything what- 
ever pertaining to the doctrines of the New Church from 
any angel, but from the Lord alone while I read the 
Word." 

It is not my purpose here to enter upon any discussion 
of this claim, or to adduce evidence to show that it is 
well founded. The need there was of a new revelation 
at the time Swedenborg lived and wrote, as shown by 
the doctrinal beliefs and teachings in all the churches of 
his day; the luminous and extraordinary character of his 
theological writings; the sweet and heavenly and catholic 
spirit that they breathe throughout; the elevated and ra- 
tional views they contain on all subjects — views that har- 
monize with the teachings of Scripture and reason and 
science, and with all we know of the laws of the human 
soul and the ways and workings of God's providence ; — 
all these combine to force an acknowledgment of his 
claim from every intelligent and candid mind who thor- 
oughly examines and understands his writings. Such 
an one admits his claim because he cannot help it. He 
finds the evidence so overwhelming, that it is easier to 
accept than to reject it. He sees that here is, indeed, a 
new revelation ; that here is a system of spiritual truth so 
grand and harmonious and rational, so comprehensive 



1 6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and majestic, and so admirably adapted to human wants 
in this age, that it could have none other than God him- 
self for its author. He accepts Swedenborg's teachings, 
therefore, as a new Dispensation of spiritual truth, bear- 
ing the impress of God's own finger. So abundant and 
overmastering is the evidence, that he cannot do other- 
wise ; he cannot reach any other conclusion. 

But those cannot admit his claim, who have not studied 
his writings. How can they ? — for they have not weighed 
the evidence; they have not seen it, indeed. And no- 
where but in his writings themselves, can satisfactory evi- 
dence of his claim be found. They may, from having read 
a few pages or chapters of his works, admit that he saw 
and taught much truth ; but we cannot expect them to go 
beyond this — nor ought they — until they have studied 
his writings sufficiently to enable them to discern, in some 
measure, their wondrous depth and comprehensiveness 
and philosophy and unity. Such persons, (and they are 
not a few) stand toward this New Christian Dispensation 
in the same attitude as those stand toward the first Chris- 
tian dispensation, who admit that Jesus Christ was a wise 
and excellent man, and that much truth is to be found in 
the New Testament ; but who do not admit the proper 
divinity of the one, nor the inspiration of the other ; 
who regard the Saviour as a merely finite and human 
being, and the writings of the Evangelists as merely 
human compositions. And while some of these persons 
may have more of the spirit of Christ than many who 



THE NEW DISPENSATION. 17 

know and believe more of Him and his gospel, still they 
would not be regarded, popularly or doctrinally speak- 
ing, as Christians ; for they do not acknowledge Chris- 
tianity as a new Dispensation, or in any proper sense as 
a new Revelation. 

So, popularly speaking, those are not of the New 
Christian Dispensation (they may belong to it really 
but not nominally) who do not see or acknowledge that 
any such dispensation has commenced, or that the 
writings of Swedenborg are, indeed, a new and divinely 
authorized revelation of heavenly truth — though they 
may have in their hearts more of the spirit and life 
of the New Church than some who accept its doc- 
trines. 

But many persons — and these inhabiting the most en- 
lightened portions of Christendom — are beginning to 
admit that Swedenborg's claim is well founded. They 
believe that he wrote under a special divine illumination, 
and that his writings are or contain a new revelation. 
And what is implied by this admission ? That no mis- 
take, however trivial, is anywhere to be found in his writ- 
ings ? That in every sentence and word he penned after 
his illumination, he was immediately directed by the 
Lord ? That every word he wrote is as certainly true as if 
it had been written by the finger of God himself? Noth- 
ing of this sort is involved in the fullest and most cordial 
admission of his claim. We may admit his divine illumin- 
ation; we may believe that he was enlightened and taught 
2 * B 



l8 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

of God as no other man ever was ; and that his writings are, 
as they claim to be, a new and divinely authorized reve- 
lation ; and yet we may believe that his illumination 
was not precisely the same at all times ; that he was not 
absolutely infallible ; that his pen, and even his thought 
on some minor points, might momentarily have slipped, 
making him teach or seem to teach in one place, some- 
thing contrary to his general teaching upon the same 
subject. 

But an admission of this man's claim, or the belief 
that his writings are a new dispensation of spiritual truth 
to men, does involve the belief, that, upon all important 
doctrines — upon all questions which have hitherto en- 
gaged the attention of Christians, and in which they are 
likely always to feel a deep interest — he has spoken with 
authority, because he wrote under an extraordinary divine 
illumination. It involves the admission that, in what he 
wrote and published concerning the Lord, the Sacred 
Scripture, Redemption, Regeneration, Salvation, the 
Resurrection, the Judgment, the nature and duration of 
Heaven and Hell, and all the great facts and laws of the 
spiritual world, he has not given us his opinion merely, 
but the truth which God was pleased to reveal through 
him. It involves the belief that, upon such momentous 
themes he was illumined by the Holy Spirit, and has 
taught only what the Lord authorized and directed him 
to teach. So that what his writings contain on such 
subjects, is not his own opinions or conclusions merely, 



THE NEW DISPENSATION. 19 

but is what the Lord himself teaches or is trying to teach 
mankind through him. 

Let me endeavor to make my view more clear by an 
illustration : — 

A man is duly accredited by our government to the 
court of St. James. Upon all important matters between 
the two countries, he receives his instruction from Wash- 
ington. And if he acts according to his instruction, 
the things he does as the authorized agent of the govern- 
ment, are not to be regarded merely as his acts, but the 
acts of the government ; and the government alone is 
responsible for them. But in carrying on some negotia- 
tion, Mr. Adams or Mr. Motley, in the exercise of the 
freedom and discretion of a plenipotentiary, may here 
and there drop a word or use an expression which his 
government might not approve ; but that is of small con- 
sequence if it does not prevent nor in any way interfere 
with the negotiation. He may not, in every interview 
with the British minister of foreign affairs, or at every 
court dinner, do and say exactly the thing that the gov- 
ernment from which he is accredited would approve ; 
but if he carries out his instructions generally, does his 
duty faithfully, and so accomplishes the purpose of his 
mission, is he any the less the accredited American min- 
ister, or his acts any the less cheerfully endorsed by his 
government because of an occasional and unimportant 
remark made by him, which the authorities at Wash- 
ington might not approve ? 



20 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

So Swedenborg— though it might be shown that he has 
here and there said things, unimportant in themselves but 
not in agreement with the general tenor of his teaching 
— is to be regarded as none the less a divinely accredited 
teacher or a divinely authorized expounder of sacred 
mysteries, if his teaching upon all important and funda- 
mental points be true, or such as meets the approval of 
heaven's own King. 

But though it is, or claims to be, a New Dispensation, 
it is a dispensation of rational religious truth. It ad- 
dresses us as rational beings, endowed with the capacity 
of discriminating between right and wrong— truth and 
falsehood. It declares that Rationality, or the ability to 
understand spiritual truth when presented, and to judge 
between it and error, is one of the noblest gifts of God. 
And it holds it to be every one's solemn duty to respect 
this gift, by faithfully exercising his own understanding 
upon whatever is offered him for religious truth. It 
teaches that no one ought to accept what his own under- 
standing rejects, even though it should be proclaimed by 
a messenger from heaven, or have the unanimous vote of 
all Christendom in its support. 

No one, therefore, is expected to receive for truth what 
Swedenborg has taught on any subject, unless the teach- 
ing approve itself to his rational intuitions ; that is, un- 
less he himself sees it to be true. Each one must use 
his own eyes, and not allow another to see for him. The 
great seer himself says : 



TK DISPENSA TIC 

This tenet, that the understand to be kept in 

subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church : and 
in its place is to be received as a maxim, that the 

truth of the church should be s order that it may 

be believed. . . . What is truth not seen, but a voice 
not understood ? M And again he The ai 

sdom in consequence of seeing truths. 
fore when it \ to any angel that this or that 

believed although it is not understood, the angel replies, 
Do you suppose me to be insane, or that you yourself 
are a god whom I am bound to believe ? 

This Dispensation, mo: >lic, comprejien- 

. universal, in its spirit. It breath :ughout the 

: charity. It inculcates the largest liberty of 
thought. It encourages the utmost freedom of religious 
inquiry. It asserts with new and increased emphasis the 
great Protestant principle — the right :f private judgment 
in matters of faith, however th gment may c 

from the solemn decree of popes, prelates, coun 
synods, assemblies or conventions. It upholds, there- 
fore, and furnishes new and paw fence 
of religious ant of all form :ror, 
innocently imbibed and conscientiously held, and shows 
the possibility of salvation under all of them. It con- 
demns no individual, no se : : . n : f e : [ ie — n 
hometans or Pagans — merely on account of their beliefs ; 
but teaches that infinite L s for ever brooding : 
all; and for ever seeking, through such forms of faith 



22 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and modes of worship as are best suited to the wants of 
each, to lift them up into clearer light and a higher 
life — into fuller communion and sweeter fellowship with 
itself. It is full, therefore — this New Dispensation — 
of the all-embracing and all-reconciling spirit of the 
Lord. 

The following extracts — and a volume of similar ones 
might be quoted from the writings of Swedenborg — will 
exhibit something of the large and catholic spirit of this 
New Dispensation : — 

"Notwithstanding there are so many various and dif- 
ferent doctrines [believed by Christians], still, if all who 
hold these doctrines did but acknowledge charity as 
the essential of the church, or what is the same, if they 
had respect to life as the end of doctrine, they would to- 
gether form one church ; ... for every one in the other 
life is gifted with a lot from the Lord according to the 
good of his life, not according to the truth of his doctrine 
separate from that good." — Ai'cana Coslestia 3241. 

"If charity were in the first place and faith in the 
second, the church would have another face. For then, 
none would be called Christians but they who lived the 
life of charity. Then, too, there would not be many 
churches distinguished by their different opinions con- 
cerning the truths of faith ; but the church would be 
called one, containing all those who are in the good of 
life."— Ibid. 6761. 

"Schisms and heresies would never have arisen if 



THE NEW DISPENSATION. 23 

charity had continued to live and rule in the church. 
For then they would not have called schism by the name 
of schism, nor heresy by the name of heresy j but they 
would have called them doctrinals agreeable to each 
one's particular opinion or way of thinking, which they 
would have left to his individual conscience ; not judging 
or condemning any for their opinions, provided they did 
not deny fundamental principles — that is, the Lord, 
eternal life, and the Word — and maintained nothing con- 
trary to the commandments of the decalogue." — Ibid. 
1834. 

"He who is in goodness of life does not condemn 
another because he differs from him in opinion, but 
leaves it to his faith and conscience ; and he extends this 
rule even to those who are out of the church — [those, 
that is, in heathen lands]. For he says in his heart that 
ignorance cannot condemn any, if they live in innocence 
and mutual love." — Ibid. 4468. 

"Within the church there are some of all denomina- 
tions who have a conscience ; though their conscience, 
however, is more perfect according as the truths which 
form it approach nearer the genuine truths of faith." — 
Ibid. 2053. 

"Every one, of whatsoever religion he be, may be 
saved— even the Gentiles who have no truths from the 
Word — if only he has had regard to the good of life 
as an end." — Ibid. 10648. 

"Let this truth be accepted and confirmed in the out- 



24 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

set, that love to the Lord and charity toward the neigh- 
bor are the essentials of all doctrine and worship, then 
heresies would be no more ; and one church would be 
formed out of many, however they might differ in doc- 
trine and ritual. ... In this case, all would be gov- 
erned as one man by the Lord ; for they would be like 
the members and organs of one body, which, though 
dissimilar in form and function, still have reference to 
one heart, on which they all depend both in general 
and in particular, however various their forms. Then, 
too, every one would say of another, in whatsoever doc- 
trine or external worship he might be, This is my broth- 
er ; I see that he worships the Lord, and that he is a 
good man." — Ibid. 2385. 

"Persons in a blind or persuasive faith, since they do 
not see truths, are not willing that the doctrines of their 
church should be approached and examined rationally 
with the understanding ; but they say that these are to 
be received from a principle of obedience, which is called 
the obedience of faith ; and it is not known whether 
the things received in such blind obedience be true or 
false ; nor can they open the way to heaven, for in heaven 
nothing but what is seen, that is, understood, is acknow- 
ledged as truth." — Apocalypse Exp lamed 1100. 

"The dogma that the understanding is to be kept in 
subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church ; and in 
its place this is to be received as a maxim, that the truth 
of the church should be seen in order that it may be be- 



THE NEW DISPENSATION. 25 

lieved ; and truth cannot be seen otherwise than ration- 
ally. How can any man be led by the Lord and con- 
joined to heaven, who shuts his understanding against 
such things as relate to salvation and eternal life ? Is it 
not the understanding that is to be illumined and in- 
structed? And what is the understanding closed by 
religion but thick darkness, and such darkness, too, as 
rejects the light that would illumine?" — Apocalypse Re- 
vealed 564. 

These quotations might be extended indefinitely. But 
the reader may gather from the few here given, some- 
thing of the large, free, tolerant and truly catholic spirit 
of this new Dispensation. And if we recognize in 
nearly all the churches of to-day, a steady increase of 
this same spirit, that is only additional evidence that 
"old things" — the old bigotry, narrowness, intolerance, 
denominational hatreds, and high partition walls of the 
last century — are passing away, and a new and more 
truly Christ-like spirit taking their place; agreeably to 
the Divine promise: "And he that sat upon the throne 

said, Behold I make all things new." 
3 






II. 

THE OLD DOCTRINE OF HELL. 

MORE than a hundred years ago, Swedenborg an- 
nounced the end or consummation of the first 
Christian Church or Dispensation, and the commence- 
ment of a new one. Repeatedly, and in the calmest and 
most emphatic language, did he declare that the Lord 
had manifested Himself to him in person; had opened 
his spiritual senses ; had permitted him to see and con- 
verse with the denizens of the other world as men see 
anpl converse with each other ; had vouchsafed to him a 
clear understanding of the spiritual and true meaning of 
the Sacred Scripture ; and had authorized and directed 
him to make a new revelation of heavenly truth for the 
instruction of all Christians and for the benefit of man- 
kind. 

Up to this time comparatively few have openly em- 
braced this new revelation. Yet its power has been seen 
and its influence felt in the gradual and steady modifica- 
tion of the old theological beliefs, which has been going 
on in nearly all of the sects for the last hundred years. 
This is admitted by some of the keenest observers and 
26 



THE OLD DOCTRINE, 27 

most advanced thinkers in all the churches. Says a 
learned critic of rare candor in the New York hidepend- 
ent (March 18, 1869) : 

"More than any other form of religious thought, Swe- 
denborgianism is a leaven Q hid in three measures of 
meal.' To a careless reader of ecclesiastical statistics, 
the Swedenborgian Church would seem to be one of the 
least of the great household of faith. To a careful stu- 
dent of religious thought, it appears to be among the 
most important. It has made very few converts from the 
faith of orthodoxy; but it has materially modified that 
faith. ... As a little salt changes the contents of a large 
vessel of water, so Swedenborgianism, seemingly lost in 
the great multitude of churches, has more or less modi- 
fied the form of faith of all." 

And this very candid writer, and careful observer of 
the theological and religious tendencies of these new 
times, specifies some of the modifications already wrought 
in the old theological beliefs by the teachings of Sweden- 
borg. After referring to the old doctrines of the Trin- 
ity, the Atonement, and the Sacred Scripture, and show- 
ing how these have been already modified by the writings 
of the Swedish seer, he concludes his list of specifica- 
tions thus : 

"The church [meaning all the so-called orthodox de- 
nominations] holds fast to the solemn truth, which no 
one has ever taught more vividly than Christ himself, that 
after death is the judgment, and after judgment heaven 



28 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and hell ; but it has accepted, unconsciously, from Swe- 
denborg, his teaching that every man carries heaven or 
hell in his own bosom ; and remits to the Past the fear- 
ful pictures of Edwards and his cotemporaries, of literal 
torments and a remorseless and pitiless God." 

And with equal truth and plainness (though with a 
little less candor, perhaps, in not hinting at the real cause) 
the distinguished pastor of Plymouth Church (Brooklyn), 
said in a sermon on " Future Punishment" preached 
some months ago : " that the educated Christian mind 
of all lands, for the last hundred years [note the period] 
has been changing" in regard to the nature of punish- 
ment in the great Hereafter. 

"It is certainly true," he continues, " that theories 
have been changing from gross material representations 
[of hell], more and more in the direction of moral repre- 
sentations. It is very true that this subject is not preached 
as it used to be — not as it was in my childhood. It has 
not been preached so often, nor with the same fiery and 
familiar boldness that it used to be. Multitudes of men 
who give every evidence of being spiritual, regenerate, 
devout, laborious and self-denying, find themselves 
straitened in their minds in respect to this question, 
and are turning anxiously every whither to see whence 
relief may come to them. There has been a profound 
change [within the last hundred years, observe] in the 
sentiment of Christendom in regard to those gross rep- 
resentations of future punishment, which were handed 



THE OLD DOCTRINE. 29 

down to us from the past." And he gives, as among the 
reasons of those gross representations, " the mediaeval 
literalization of the Bible figures.' ' 

Now, to judge correctly of the need there was of a 
new revelation a hundred years ago, we should go back 
to the time when Swedenborg wrote, and see what 
were the then accepted teachings upon the various 
points of Christian theology. Since that time the be- 
liefs of Christians have, through the light of the New 
Dispensation (which is " as the lightning that cometh 
out of the east and shineth even unto the west"), be- 
come so modified, that, on many subjects, they bear but 
little resemblance to those held previous to that time. 
Very few are aware of the changes in theological opinion 
that have taken place in nearly all the churches during 
the last hundred years, and that are still going ,on at a 
rapid pace ; and fewer still are aware of the cause of 
these changes. 

Take, for illustration, the doctrine concerning hell, or 
the future punishment of the wicked. At the time Sweden- 
borg wrote, the commonly received doctrine in all the 
churches was according to the literal teaching of the 
Bible. It was believed and taught for Christian verity 
that hell is literally a lake of fire and brimstone; — a 
place created by the Lord at the beginning for the ex- 
press purpose of inflicting upon all who die in their sins 
as much suffering as infinite ingenuity could possibly de- 
vise. It was held that sinners, after death, were to be 
3* 



3° NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

cast alive into this burning lake by order of the Supreme 
Judge of the universe, as criminals on earth are cast into 
prison by order of the judges of criminal courts. And 
that they were always to remain there, perfectly con- 
scious, indued with the most exquisite sensibility to 
pain, forever burning yet never consumed, writhing and 
groaning in eternal agony. And as if this were not tor- 
ment enough, the gross imaginations of religious teachers 
often added other horrors equally revolting. Mr. Buckle, 
in his History of Civilization in England, speaking of the 
clergy of the seventeenth century — especially the Scotch 
clergy — and their view of hell and its torments, says : 

" In the pictures which they drew, they reproduced and 
heightened the barbarous imagery of a barbarous age. 
They delighted in telling their hearers that they would 
be roasted in great fires and hung up by their tongues. 
They were to be lashed with scorpions, and see their 
companions writhing and howling around them. They 
were to be thrown into boiling oil and scalding lead. 
A river of brimstone broader than the earth was prepared 
for them ; in that they were to be immersed. . . . Such 
were the first stages of suffering, and they were only the 
first. For the torture, besides being unceasing, was to 
become gradually worse. So refined was the cruelty, 
that one hell was succeeded by another; and, lest the 
sufferer should grow callous, he was, after a time, moved 
on, that he might undergo fresh agonies in fresh places, 
provision being made that the torment should not pall 



THE OLD DOCTRINE. 3 1 

on the sense, but should be varied in its character as well 
as eternal in its duration. 

" All this was the work of the God of the Scotch clergy. 
It was not only his work, it was his joy and his pride. 
For, according to them, hell was created before man 
came into the world ; the Almighty, they did not scruple 
to say, having spent his previous leisure in preparing and 
completing this place of torture, so that, when the human 
race appeared, it might be ready for their reception. 
Ample, however, as the arrangements were, they were in- 
sufficient ; and hell not being big enough to contain the 
countless victims incessantly poured into it, had, in these 
latter days, been enlarged. But in that vast expanse 
there was no void, for the whole of it reverberated with 
the shrieks and yells of undying agony. . . . Both chil- 
dren and fathers made hell echo with their piercing 
screams, writhing in convulsive agony at the torments 
which they suffered, and knowing that other torments 
more grievous still were reserved for them." (Vol. II. 
pp. 294, 295.) 

Now every statement that Mr. Buckle here makes, 
finds ample confirmation in the works of distinguished 
theologians of that period and some of the previous cen- 
turies. Rutherford in his Religious Letters, speaking of 
the future punishment of the wicked, says: " Tongue, 1 
lungs and liver, bones and all, shall boil and fry in a tor- ! 
turing fire" (p. 17); — "a river of fire and brimstone 
broader than the earth." (p. 35.) And Boston, in his 



3 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

Human Nature in its Fourfold State, treating of this same 
subject, says: " They will be universal torments, every 
part of the creature being tormented in that flame. When 
one is cast into a fiery furnace, the fire makes its way into 
the very bowels, and leaves no member untouched : what 
part then can have ease when the damned swim in a lake 
of fire burning with brimstone?" (p. 458.) And Rev. 
Thomas Halyburton, in his Great Concern of Salvation, 
says : " Consider, Who is the contriver of these torments. 
There have been some very exquisite torments contrived 
by the wit of men, the naming of which, if ye under- 
stood their nature, were enough to fill your hearts with 
horror \ but all these fall as far short of the torments ye 
are to endure, as the wisdom of man falls short of that 
of God." (p. 154, Edinburgh edit., 1722.) 

Such was the generally accepted doctrine concerning 
hell in all the Christian churches at the time Sweden- 
borg wrote. Such, too, had been the doctrine for cen- 
turies previous, as we learn from Christian writers and 
Christian artists. These latter aimed to embody or repre- 
sent upon canvas the prevalent Christian thought of the 
period in which they lived. Thus Michael Angelo, in 
his picture of the Last Judgment, tells us more plainly 
than words could tell, what idea Christians of his day 
had of the future punishment of the wicked. Truly did 
Mr. Beecher say in one of his sermons not long ago : 

"If you will take this picture, you will better under- 
stand what was the real feeling of the age in which he 



THE OLD DOCTRINE. 33 

lived on the subject of reward and punishment, than by 
reading any amount of theological treatises. Let any 
one look at that ; let any one see the enormous gigantic 
coils of fiends and men ; let any one look at that defiant 
Christ that stands like a superb athlete at the front, 
hurling his enemies from him and calling his friends 
toward him as Hercules might have done ; let any one 
look upon that hideous wriggling mass that goes plung- 
ing down through the air — serpents and men and beasts 
of every nauseous kind, mixed together ; let him look at 
the lower parts of the picture, where with pitchforks 
men are by devils being cast into caldrons and into burn- 
ing fires, where hateful fiends are gnawing the skulls of 
suffering sinners, and where there is hellish cannibalism 
going on — let a man look at that picture and the scenes 
which it depicts, and he sees what were the ideas which 
men once had of hell and of divine justice. It was a 
nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the hellish 
brood itself; and it was an atrocious slander on God. 
... I do not wonder that men have reacted from these 
horrors — I honor them for it." {Plymouth Pulpit for Oct. 
29, 1870.) 

And this bold and eloquent divine further adds in the 
same discourse : 

" To allow such a stream of human existence to be fed 
and renewed in every generation, which was pouring 
over the precipice at the rate of thirty millions a year, 
into such torments as the old method of representation 



34 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

presented to us, and at the same time to teach that God 
was a loving Father — these two things have seemed so 
difficult to multitudes of persons, that they have fled 
from the attempt to reconcile them, and have abandoned 
all belief in them." 

And how does Mr. Beecher himself reconcile them ? 
Or how does he understand and interpret the language 
of the Bible which refers to the future state of the wicked ? 
He frankly confesses his own blindness and confusion 
here. He don't know what to make of this language. 
" It goes to my heart to say these things," he says — i. e. 
the things he finds in the Bible. " Yet it is there, and 
if I am faithful to my whole duty I must preach it. As 
a surgeon does things that are most uncongenial to him- 
self, so sometimes do I. And I do this with tears and 
with sorrow. It makes me sick." 

It is plain, then, what was the old and universally re- 
ceived doctrine among Christians concerning hell at the 
time Swedenborg wrote. 

Very few, however, believe this doctrine now. The 
light that has been flowing into all minds from out the 
new angelic heavens for the last hundred years, has so 
clearly revealed its hideousness, that you will hardly find 
an intelligent Christian of any denomination now-a-days, 
who does not reject it. Most people have no rational 
and clearly defined doctrine to take the place of the old ; 
but this latter nobody now accepts. 

The old doctrine, therefore, being such as we find it — 



THE OLD DOCTRINE. 35 

so irrational and monstrous and cruel in itself — so utterly 
repugnant to every true Christian feeling and to every 
just conception of the character and government of God 
— is it unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Being 
would some day vouchsafe a further revelation to his 
children on this subject ? If there ever was a subject on 
which the minds of men were in utter and impene- 
trable darkness, and on which, therefore, a further reve- 
lation was needed, is it not the very subject we are con- 
sidering ? And at what time should we expect the reve- 
lation to be made, other than that when it seemed most 
necessary — the time of densest spiritual darkness, when 
such preposterous ideas as to the nature of hell and future 
punishment as those I have here presented, were gener- 
ally taught and accepted for revealed truth ? 



III. 

THE NEW VIEW. 

WE have seen what the doctrine of hell was, which 
was generally taught and accepted by Christians 
a hundred years ago. It was a doctrine quite in agree- 
ment with the sensuous appearances of truth in the letter 
of the Word ; and in agreement, therefore, with the gross 
conceptions of men in a carnal and sensuous state. It 
taught that hell was, literally, a lake of fire and brim- 
stone ; — a place into which the wicked were to be finally 
cast, not out of mercy to them, or from any consideration 
of their comfort, improvement, or best welfare, but from 
a feeling of Divine wrath and vindictiveness. It was 
the generally accepted belief when Swedenborg wrote, 
that this fiery lake was created for the express purpose of 
inflicting upon sinners the most excruciating tortures 
which Divine ingenuity could invent. 

Moreover, according to the doctrine of that period, 
the Supreme Judge of all the earth took a fiendish delight 
in casting his rebellious offspring into that fiery gulf, 
listening to their agonizing shrieks, and gazing on their 
ceaseless and indescribable sufferings ! And no incon- 
siderable part of the joys of heaven, it was also believed 
36 



THE NEW DOCTRINE. 37 

and taught, would spring from a clear view, given to 
those there, of the dreadful torments of the damned, 
and from a contemplation of the contrast between the 
miserable condition of these latter, and their own happy 
condition in the realms of bliss ! 

Such was the dreadful doctrine taught from most if 
not all of the pulpits in Christendom a hundred years 
ago ! — taught for the revealed truth of God ! — taught by 
the professed expounders of the Word of God ! — by the 
acknowledged teachers and guides of the people in mat- 
ters pertaining to man's immortal life ! 

Yet intelligent people gravely ask, What need was there 
of any new or further revelation at the time Swedenborg 
lived and wrote? Considering how the Word of God 
was then misunderstood and falsified by its professed ex- 
pounders — in what fearful darkness the minds of pro- 
fessing Christians were then immersed, not only upon 
this subject but upon others also pertaining to religion, 
it would, indeed, have been strange if a new revelation 
had not then been made. 

Nor need we wonder, in view of this horrible doctrine 
concerning hell, which was commonly taught a hundred 
years ago for Bible truth (to say nothing of other doc- 
trines equally revolting), that so many in Christian lands 
should have lost all faith in the Bible as a Divine revela- 
tion ; and that many others who retain their faith, should 
have come to deny the existence of any hell whatever in 
the other world. Among the last and sure results of 



38 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

false teaching, are suspicions, doubts, denials, and finally 
the total eclipse of all faith. 

See how good men — ministers of the gospel even — who 
have not accepted the rational and heart-cheering truths 
of the New Dispensation, are troubled even in this our 
day by what they suppose the Bible to teach in regard to 
the future state of the wicked. Says the late Rev. Dr. 
Barnes, one of the most distinguished of the Presbyterian 
ministers of our country: — 

" That any should suffer for ever, lingering on in hope- 
less despair, and rolling amidst infinite torments without 
the possibility of alleviation and without end ; that since 
God can save men and will save a part, He has not pro- 
posed to save all — these are real, not imaginary, difficul- 
ties. . . . My whole soul pants for light and relief on 
these questions. But I get neither ; and in the distress 
and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no 
light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me why 
sin came into the world ; why the earth is strewn with 
the dying and the dead ; and why man must suffer to all 
eternity. I have never seen a particle of light thrown 
on these subjects, that has given a moment's ease to my 
tortured mind. ... I confess, when I look on a world 
of sinners and sufferers — upon death-beds and grave- 
yards — upon the world of woe filled with hosts to suffer 
for ever ; when I see my friends, my family, my people, 
my fellow-citizens — when I look upon a whole race, all 
involved in this sin and danger — and when I see the 



THE NEW DOCTRINE. 39 

great mass of them wholly unconcerned, and when I feel 
that God only can save them, and yet He does not do so, 
I am struck dumb. It is all dark, dark, dark, to my 
soul, and I cannot disguise it." 

How many other good men are there among the Chris- 
tian ministers of to-day, who, if they would but confess 
the honest truth, would tell you that they are in just the 
same darkness and distress that Dr. Barnes here confesses 
to — if not upon the same subjects, then upon some others 
no better understood. Yet Dr. Barnes himself, I pre- 
sume, was so confirmed in all the dogmas of the Presby- 
terian church, that the light of heaven as it beams out 
from the luminous pages of Swedenborg, would have 
seemed to him darkness as thick, perhaps, as that in 
which he confessed himself to be ; — it could hardly have 
seemed more dense. Verily, "the light shineth in dark- 
ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." 

Certainly, then, a new revelation concerning the nature 
of hell, or concerning the condition of the wicked in 
the great Hereafter, was greatly needed when Sweden- 
borg wrote ; and therefore it was to be expected. 

Let us now examine the New doctrine on this subject, 
and see whether it is really worthy of the origin claimed 
for it; or whether it be as irrational as the Old one 
which it comes professedly to displace. 
B According to the new doctrine of the immortal life, 
the human soul is in the same form as the material body 
— that is, the human form. It is organized of spiritual 



4° NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

substance, as the natural body is of material substance. 
It is the real individual — man, woman or child. It is 
that in us which thinks, remembers, reasons, loves. It is 
endowed with the senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. 
— far more acute and perfect, too, than the bodily senses. 
It is not subject to decay or death, but lives on after the 
natural body dies. When that change which we call 
death (and which is the death of the body) takes place, 
the soul passes consciously into the spiritual world. It 
was there before death, but ^-consciously while its out- 
look was into the realm of nature ; just as the body in a 
state of sleep is, unconsciously, in the natural world ; 
and when it awakes, it becomes fully conscious of its 
abode here. 

While the soul tabernacles in the flesh, its senses are 
ordinarily closed ; but when released from all connec- 
tion with the body, its senses are all opened. It awakes 
to a consciousness of its existence in the spiritual world. 
It is then brought into open and sensible intercourse with 
the people and objects of that world. Its eyes and ears 
being opened, it sees and hears other spirits as plainly as 
we see and hear one another. 

And when the body dies, the character of every soul 
is, and continues to be, essentially the same as it was 
before death. And every one's character depends on 
the nature of his supreme or governing purpose — that 
is, on the character of his ruling love. If he were wise 
and righteous before death — if he took delight in serving 



THE NEW DOCTRE\ T E. 41 

and blessing others, he will be wise and righteous after, 
will find still greater delight in serving and blessing, and 
feel a more intense desire to serve and bless. But if he 
loved himself supremely — if his chief aim in life was to 
get gain for himself alone, to secure his own ease, com- 
fort and advancement, and promote his own welfare, 
careless of the welfare and the rights of others, he will 
be in precisely the same state after death ; he will be 
just as indifferent to the wants, the woes, the welfare and 
the rights of others as he was before. If he had no 
genuine love of the Lord and the neighbor before, he 
will have none after. If meanness, dishonesty, lust, 
tyranny, hatred, contempt of others in comparison with 
himself, and selfish greed of gain, were in his heart be- 
fore, he will be full of these same unclean and hateful 
vermin after. As it is written : " He that is unjust, will 
be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, will be filthy still ; 
and he that is righteous, will be righteous still ; and he 
that is holy, will be holy still. " 

Heaven is within the soul ; so says the new doctrine. 
It is essentially a state of life, not a place ; — a state of 
supreme love to the Lord and the neighbor. It consists 
in the reception and exercise of the Lord's own unselfish 
love, which for ever seeks not its own, but the welfare 
and happiness of others. The happiness of heaven re- 
sults from the exercise of unselfish love. This love is 
the angels' breath of life ; and the purer and more in- 
tense it is, the more exalted is their bliss. 
4 * 



42 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

We see how well this agrees with the teaching of our 
Lord. For not only does He tell us that the sum of all 
which the Law and the Prophets teach, is comprehended 
in the two great commandments which require us to love 
the Lord supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, but 
He says also that " the kingdom of God is within you." 
And the kingdom of God is the same as the kingdom of 
heaven. Wherever love — pure, unselfish love — reigns, 
there the Lord reigns ; there his kingdom is established 
and his laws obeyed. 

And as the kingdom of heaven is within, so also (says 
the New doctrine) is the kingdom of hell. As heaven 
consists essentially in love to the Lord and the neigh- 
bor, which is the love of doing good and serving, so 
hell consists essentially in the opposite kind of love — in 
the love of one's own self; and this love is real hatred of 
the neighbor. 

Hell, therefore, is a state of life the very opposite to 
that of heaven. It is a state in which the love of self 
has absolute dominion in the heart. This love is the 
fountain of all other evil loves. It is the primal source 
of all infernal deeds. When it reigns supreme in the 
heart, there is no evil thing which a man will not do 
unless restrained by force, or by fear of loss, suffering or 
damage of some sort. Hence the Lord says : " For out 
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy" — all the 



THE DOCTRIXE. 4.3 

things which defile a man. or render him spiritually un- 
clean. 

e, then, where bell is and what it is, according 
to the New doctrine. It is in the soul, and consists essen- 
tially in the supreme love of self which prompts to all 
infernal deeds. To have hell in the soul, or to be in a 
state of supreme self-love, is to be in hell; just as having 
heaven within, or loving the Lord supremely and the 
neighbor as one's self, is to be in heaven. 

N dw all men are bv natural inheritance more or less 
selfish. Naturally, therefore, we are all in the low state 
denoted by hell ; for we are dominated more or less abso- 
lutely by the love of self. This is a low — a merely ani- 
mal love; and as our corporeal or animal life unfolds 
and matures, this love also unfolds and strengthens ; so 
:h;.: v/ier. ~ ± hive :r.::.7.t:. :: f:._ rnir-iriry. :: is isi?l'.y 
the strongest — the ruling love. But this is not our true 
state. It is not the properly human state. It is not the 
orderly or blissful state for which we were created. It 
is not the state in which the Lord desires that we should 
remain, because He desires that all should be happy. 
Therefore He is in the constant effort to lift us out of 
our carnal selfish state, and to make us unselfish and 
loving like Himself. For this end He assumed our 
natural humanity. For this end He has revealed the laws 
of our higher or heavenly life. For this end He has 
shown us very clearly the way to rise out of our natural 
state of self-love, which is hell, into that higher and 



44 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

nobler state — that state of sweet unselfish love, which 
is heaven. 

This great change (for it is, indeed, a great change), or 
this passing out of a low, natural, selfish state of life, into 
one that is higher, richer, nobler — in short, into the 
truly human state, is spoken of in the Bible as a "resur- 
rection to newness of life;" as a "putting off of the 
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
lusts," and a "putting on of the new man, which after 
God is created in righteousness and true holiness;" as 
" passing from death unto life ;" as being " born again " 
— " born from above " — " born of God," without which, 
we are assured, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. 
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
dom of God." 

Now although the Lord desires that we should all pass 
out of our low or hellish state, into that high and heav- 
enly one which He has made us capable of attaining, 
although He has told us how we may do so — has made 
the way very plain — has assumed our nature with all its 
hereditary and selfish proclivities that He might thereby 
become to us THE WAY — yet He uses no compulsion. 
He leaves all in freedom to either remain in their low 
natural state, which is hell, or to rise out of it into that 
exalted and unselfish state, which is heaveji. He has 
made known the conditions upon which alone we can 
rise ; and He is ever ready to lend us all needed help. 
He is continually calling to us and saying, This is the 



THE NEW DOCTRINE. 45 

way ; walk ye in it. But He does not take hold of us 
like a policeman, and force us to walk in that way. No 
one can be forced to heaven \ for no one can be forced 
to shun evils as sins, nor to love what is good and true for 
its own sake. To go to heaven, we must freely comply 
with the conditions; and the conditions are, that we 
voluntarily obey the laws of the heavenly life ; — that we 
struggle with and overcome our selfish and evil propen- 
sities; — that we deny self, take up our cross, and follow 
the Lord in the regeneration. 

Such, briefly, is the New doctrine concerning hell — 
where it is, what it is, and how to escape it." Is there 
anything in it absurd and revolting, as we have seen that 
there is in the Old? Is there anything here against 
which enlightened reason utters its emphatic protest? — 
anything which impugns the wisdom or love of our 
Heavenly Father ? 

But how does this doctrine, it will be asked, accord 
with the teaching of Scripture ? It may be reasonable — 
far more reasonable than the Old doctrine. But is it 
also Scriptural ? This is the question — and an important 
one it is, too — which next claims and will receive atten- 
tion. 



IV. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT— SHE OL, HADES, GE- 
HENNA, AND THE LAKE OF FIRE. 

I HAVE said that while the Old doctrine of hell is 
sensuous, and in agreement with a sensuous philoso- 
phy and a sensuous interpretation of Scripture, the New 
is eminently spiritual, and in harmony with the higher 
spiritual philosophy and with the spiritual interpretation 
of the Word. 

For the essential difference between the Old and the 
New doctrine, lies in this : That the Old represents hell 
as a place, created by the Lord at the time of man's 
creation, previous to his lapse into sin, and for the express 
purpose of tormenting sinners ; while the New declares 
it to be a certain internal state, wrought out in freedom 
through the voluntary infraction of the soul's own laws, 
or the laws of our higher life. Your child may reside in 
the someplace with yourself — beneath the shelter of the 
same roof, and surrounded by the same beautiful objects. 
But by a course of willful disobedience or unreasonable 
self-indulgence, that child may have destroyed its health, 
impaired its senses, and rendered itself miserable and 
wretched generally. And until its habits are changed 

4G 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 47 

and its health renewed, it will find rest and comfort in 
no place however beautiful. 

Both hell and heaven, according to the New Theology, 
are within men. They are not places but states of life. 
But in the other world, these states project themselves 
outwardly, making all the surroundings of each spirit a 
perfect mirror, as it were, of himself; — reflecting with 
mathematical precision his own affections and thoughts. 
Heaven is a state the very opposite of hell \ as opposite 
as day is to night, light to darkness, health to sickness, 
love to hate, good to evil. The essential life of heaven, 
is the life of disinterested love — love to the Lord and 
the neighbor. The essential life of hell, is the life of 
self-love; and this is real hatred of the neighbor. 
Heaven is a state in which the understanding is illu- 
mined by the light of truth ; hell is a state in which it is 
obscured by the darkness of falsity. Heaven is a state 
of spiritual health, order, peace and joy unutterable ; 
hell is a state of spiritual sickness, disorder, unrest and 
comparative sorrow. In the most exalted heavenly state, 
every one loves others even more than he loves himself; 
in hell, and in all hellish states, every one hates others 
in comparison with himself. Heaven is a state of hu- 
mility, self-forgetfulness, and of sweet and serene trust 
in the Lord ; hell is a state of pride, self-seeking, and 
inward alienation from and opposition to the Lord. 
Heaven is a state of the most delightful freedom, in 
which every one finds his highest gratification in the 



48 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

performance of good uses from love to the Lord and 
his neighbor ; hell is a state of spiritual thraldom, in 
which no useful act is performed from love of or delight 
in the use, but only by compulsion, as a slave works 
under the lash. 

It should be said, however, that the love of self is evil 
and makes man an infernal only when it is the supreme 
and ruling love. Then it is out of its place and the soul 
is in disorder... In its right place, which is a state of 
subordination and complete subjection to the nobler 
love of heaven, it is good and useful. Says Sweden- 
borg: 

" These three loves [the love of heaven, the love of 
the world, and the love of self] are related to each other 
like the three regions of the body, the highest of which 
is the head, the intermediate the chest and abdomen, 
while the legs and feet and soles of the feet form the 
third. When the love of heaven forms the head, the 
love of the world the chest and abdomen, and the love 
of self the feet with the soles of the feet, then man is in 
a perfect state according to creation, because the two 
lower loves then subserve the highest as the body and 
all its parts subserve the head." {True Christian Relig- 
ion, 403.) 

But when the love of self or of the world is as the 
head* — is supreme — then the true order is reversed ; the 
man is turned, as it were, upside down ; the love of 
heaven is as the feet, and he tramples on the laws of 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 49 

justice and neighborly love as often as his ruler (self- 
love) dictates. 

Such, according to Swedenborg is the essential nature 
of heaven and hell. They are both within the human 
soul, and consist in essentially opposite states of life — 
opposite kinds of love — resulting by inevitable sequence, 
in character, conduct, modes of government, and an 
outward or objective world, as different as are the loves 
that rule in these two kingdoms respectively. 

Surely there is nothing unreasonable in all this. But 
how does it agree with the teachings of Scripture ? That 
is the question for present consideration. And the first 
thing that claims attention, is the meaning of the word 
Hell. To ascertain this, we must go to the original lan- 
guages of the Bible. 

SHEOL AND HADES. 

The Hebrew word translated Hell, is Sheol. And 
Sheol, according to its primary literal import, means the 
under world, or a vast subterranean place pervaded by 
thick darkness. Hence this word is sometimes translated 
the grave, as in Genesis xxxvii. 35 ; xlii. 38. The corre- 
sponding Greek word is Hades. This has the same 
meaning as Sheol, and is always used instead of it in the 
Greek version of the Old Testament. And as further 
evidence of their identity of import, we find the passage 
from the sixteenth Psalm, "Thou wilt not leave my soul 

in hell M etc., quoted in the Acts of the apostles (ch.ii.). 
5 D 



SO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

And in the Old Testament the Hebrew word for Hell in 
this passage is Sheol, and in the New it is Hades, — prov- 
ing that these words have one and the same meaning. 

Such being the plain literal import of the Hebrew 
Sheol, and its Greek equivalent Hades, some theologians 
have contended that our English word hell ought to be 
restricted in its meaning to the natural world ; for, 
according to the strictly literal import both of the Greek 
and Hebrew word, it means simply the grave, or a low and 
dark place — a place underground; and has no reference 
whatever to the condition of the wicked in the other 
world, or to anything beyond the natural realm. 

And if the Bible is to be literally interpreted — if it 
contains no meaning beyond that which lies upon the 
surface, and which is obvious to the merely natural or 
sensuous mind, these theologians certainly have the best 
of the argument. What answer can the literalist consist- 
ently give? For how, according to his theory, is this 
word hell made to refer to the condition of the wicked 
in the other world ? Why should it not be restricted in 
its meaning, to that which it literally denotes, viz., the 
grave, or a dark subtei^'anean region ? 

Yet there are insuperable difficulties which those who 
contend for such a limitation of the meaning of this 
word, have to encounter. For, to be consistent in their 
hermeneutics, they should limit the meaning of the term 
heaven in precisely the same way. They should insist 
on restricting the meaning of this word also to the realm 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 5 1 

of nature ; and should maintain that it has no reference 
to the condition of the righteous in the other world — for, 
in its obvious literal sense it has not. 

The word in the original Hebrew, translated heaven in 
our English version, is shdmayim ; and the literal signifi- 
cation of this is, the firmament, or the space above the 
earth. It comes (so the best linguists tell us) from an 
obsolete root, shdmd, whose meaning in the cognate 
Arabic language is, to be high, or lifted up. And to this 
Arabic radical lexicographers refer the Hebrew term as 
denoting an elevated locality — a high place. The Greek 
equivalent of this Hebrew word is ouranos, which is also 
translated by our English heaven, and means the same as 
shdi7iayi7n ; that is, the space above the earth, or the vast 
concave that surrounds the earth. And according to 
most philologists it comes from the Greek radical orao, 
which means to see — referring to the space above or 
around the earth, where by means of the sun's light 
objects are visible. 

We find, therefore, that the words heaven and hell, 
which occur so often in the sacred Volume, refer — in 
their plain, obvious, literal sense, as gathered from the 
Hebrew and Greek terms — to merely natural localities; 
one, to a place that is high, or to a region above the 
earth, involving also the idea or possibility of clear- 
seeing ; the other, to a place that is low, or to a region 
beneath the earth, involving also the idea of darkness, 
or great difficulty in seeing. And if the literalists, or 



52 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

those who deny that the Scripture everywhere contains a 
spiritual sense, would be consistent, they should restrict 
the meaning of both these words to the natural world — 
and to things without, not within the soul of man. For 
all good Biblical scholars know that neither heaven nor 
hell, according to the literal import of their equivalent 
Greek and Hebrew terms, conveys an idea of anything 
above the realm of nature. 

But there is abundant Scripture evidence that these 
terms are not to be thus restricted in their meaning. 
There is evidence that they refer to states and conditions 
of two widely different classes of people in the spiritual 
world. Thus the seer of Patmos tells us of persons and 
things that he saw in heaven, when he was " in the 
spirit," or when u a door was opened" to him in 
heaven. Surely the myriads of angels whom he beheld, 
were not seen with his natural eyes, nor in that region of 
natural space above our earth. No : John's spiritual eyes 
were opened, and this enabled him to see the beings 
and objects of the spiritual world. 

The Apostle Paul tells us that, on a certain occasion, 
he was " caught up to the third heaven," and heard 
there things which natural language cannot express. 
How " caught up"? Was the apostle's material body 
lifted through natural space into the upper regions of 
the air ? No one, I presume, believes this. No one sup- 
poses that his corporeal part underwent any change of 
place. No doubt there was to the apostle the appearance 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 53 

of being suddenly lifted up ; but this appearance was 
caused by, and was in perfect correspondence with, a 
change which took place at that time in the condition 
of the apostle's own mind. It was produced by a sudden 
opening of his spiritual senses even to the third degree.* 
No one ever was or ever can be carried to heaven — the 
heaven of which the Bible speaks — by being elevated 
bodily to the upper regions of space ; — no, not even if 
he were lifted higher than the stars. 

Then in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, we find the 
rich man represented as alive and in hell after the death 
and burial of his material body ; which proves conclu- 
sively that the hell of which the Bible speaks, is not any 
region of natural space, but the state or condition of the 
wicked — and a state, too, in which they find themselves 
after the death of the body. 

How, then, are we to arrive at the true Scripture im- 

* According to Swedenborg, man is endowed with spiritual senses, 
which are ordinarily closed during his sojourn in the flesh. Yet 
these senses may be and sometimes are opened during his abode on 
earth; and when opened, he is intromitted into the spiritual world, 
and sees the objects and hears the sounds of that world as plainly as 
with his natural senses he sees and hears the objects and sounds 
of the natural world. And if the spiritual senses are opened to 
the third or inmost degree (for there are three degrees to the mind 
corresponding to the three angelic heavens) the individual is there- 
by intromitted into the third or highest heaven. This, Swedenborg 
tells us, is the way in which he was admitted into heaven while on 
earth. And it was the way in which Paul was " caught up." 
5* 



54 JVEW VIEW OF HELL. 

port of the terms heaven and hell? — for in their obvious 
literal sense, they are both used to designate natural 
localities — one a high and illumined, the other a low and 
dark place. According to what principle or law is their 
true meaning to be elicited ? 

Swedenborg answers this question, as no one else has 
ever answered it. (Let the reader, if he would appre- 
ciate the full force of the answer, bear in mind that the 
Bible everywhere represents heaven and hell as opposite 
kingdoms — opposite as light and darkness, love and hate, 
truth and falsity, righteousness and sin, happiness and 
misery) — He tells us that the written Word is composed 
throughout upon the principle of correspondence ; that, 
between all natural and spiritual things, there is a cor- 
respondence like that existing between the body and the 
soul; and that the Sacred Scripture, therefore, in each 
and all its parts, contains both a spiritual and a natural 
sense, which stand related like the spiritual and the nat- 
ural worlds, or like the soul and body of man. The 
spiritual sense is as the soul ; the natural sense, as the 
body. As the body's life is from the indwelling soul or 
spirit, so the life of every part of the written Word is 
from the spiritual sense. The body of man without the 
soul, has no life ; neither is there life in the letter of the 
Word when divorced from its inner spiritual meaning. 
It is by virtue of their spiritual sense that the Lord's 
words are spirit and life ; for he says : " The words that 
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 55 

the apostle also clearly recognizes the same truth when 
he says : " The letter killeth; but the spirit giveth life." 

Agreeably to this doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, 
therefore, the words heaven and hell have each a natural 
sense such as I have already explained, and a spiritual 
sense with which the natural corresponds. Natural space 
corresponds to spiritual or mental state. Hence all 
words of Scripture, which in their natural sense refer to 
space, in their spiritual sense denote states of the mind. 
Accordingly there is natural elevation, and spiritual eleva- 
tion ; elevation in space and elevation in state. And the 
term heaven, which in its natural sense refers to elevation 
in space, in its spiritual sense denotes elevation of state ; 
— that exalted condition of mind and heart, that state of 
clear perception of whatever is beautiful and true, and of 
disinterested love for all that is good and right, in which 
the angels are. 

So, too, there is natural lowness, and spiritual lowness ; 
the former having reference to space, the latter to state. 
And the term hell, which in its natural sense denotes a 
low place or a region under ground, in its spiritual sense 
denotes a low groveling state of mind ; — that state of 
carnal desire and selfish craving and obscure perception 
and blunted moral sensibility, in which the devils are. 

We often use the words high and low in their spiritual 
sense in familiar discourse ; and always when we have 
occasion to apply them to moral or human qualities, 
though in their primary literal signification they have 



56 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

reference only to natural space. We employ them to 
designate superiority and inferiority of character, or of 
mental and moral attributes. Thus we speak familiarly 
of a high order of intellect, of a high-minded man, of 
lofty souls, superior worth, exalted wisdom and love. 
We say of an individual that he stands high in the com- 
munity, high in the church or in the state, that he is 
above others, etc., when our meaning is that he is spirit- 
ually or mentally above them — superior in wisdom, skill, 
integrity, and moral worth. And equally often in famil- 
iar discourse is the word low used in a similar way. As 
when it is said of a mean and selfish man, that he is a 
person of a low mind, low desires, low motives, or that 
he is a low fellow. Indeed, the correspondence between 
the natural and spiritual import of these terms, is so 
obvious that it has never been lost sight of. Every one 
perceives it from common influx. 

The Lord is called the Most High in Scripture, and is 
said to dwell on high, above the earth, and above the 
heavens. Surely it is not with any reference to natural 
locality that such things are predicated of the omnipresent 
One. No rational mind thinks of interpreting such lan- 
guage literally ; for no one thinks of localizing the Divine 
Being. He is in all space — in the depths beneath as 
truly as in the heights above — yet is Himself without 
space. But on account of the infinite purity and excel- 
lence of his character — because, in respect to the human 
attributes of love, wisdom and power, He is infinitely 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. SI 

exalted above men and angels, He is said to be above all 
the earth, above the heavens, the Most High, etc. 

Yes : — The Scripture has everywhere a deeper meaning 
than that of the letter. It was given, not to teach us 
natural but spiritual truth. And it is by means of the 
law or rule of correspondence now revealed, that its true 
spiritual meaning is to be elicited. Space corresponds 
to state. And the words high and low, therefore, which 
in their natural sense refer to opposite regions of space, 
in their spiritual sense denote opposite mental states — 
opposite kinds of love. The Lord is spiritually the Most 
High. Therefore those who draw near to Him spirit- 
ually, who become like Him in the spirit and temper of 
their minds, are spiritually exalted. And because all the 
angels are images and likenesses of Himself — because 
they resemble Him in their love, wisdom and works — 
because their affections, thoughts, motives, purposes are 
all pure, noble and elevated, therefore they are said to 
dwell on high ; or, what is equivalent, in heaven. 

And on the other hand those who are spiritually most 
remote from the Lord, who are most unlike Him in dis- 
position and character, whose aims are altogether selfish, 
whose affections, thoughts, motives and actions are low 
and ignoble, and contrary to the nature of the Divine 
Love, and who are, therefore, in a state the very opposite 
to that of the angels, are said to dwell in a low place, 
beneath the earth ; or what is the same, in hell. 

I have said, moreover, that the Greek word translated 



58 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

heaven, involves the idea of light, being derived from a 
verb which signifies to see ; and that the original word 
translated hell, involves the idea of darkness, being 
composed of two words, which together mean impossible 
to see, or where one cannot see. Here, again, let that 
magic Key, the law of Correspondence, be applied ; and 
observe the result. 

Light and darkness, like all other objects, have a two- 
fold signification — an outer and an inner, or a natural 
and a spiritual meaning. Light in its natural sense, is 
the light of the natural world, which affects our natural 
organs of vision. But spiritual light is of a different 
nature, though in perfect correspondence with the natural. 
It is the light of the spiritual world ; and although in its 
essence it is divine truth, it appears before the eyes of 
the angels as light. They see by means of it. This light 
proceeds from the Lord who is the Sun of the spiritual 
world — a Sun that appears to the angels immeasurably 
more brilliant than the sun of our world appears to us. It 
is the light of this spiritual Sun which illumines the minds 
of both angels and men. This is " the true light which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. " 

And as natural darkness is the absence of natural light, 
so spiritual darkness is the absence of spiritual light. 
But there are two causes of natural darkness ; one is the 
absence of light, and the other is a diseased state of 
the organs of vision. The darkness from the first of 
these causes is seldom of long duration ; and if the 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 59 

organs of vision are preserved in a healthy condition, 
we shall be able to see when the light comes. But the 
darkness produced by the second cause is, indeed, de- 
plorable. However brightly the light may shine, it is (if 
the eye-sight be gone) as if the sun were blotted out. 
The brightness of noon-day is as midnight darkness 
to us. 

So, likewise, there are two corresponding causes of 
spiritual darkness. One is, the absence of truth, or 
spiritual light. But this kind of darkness may soon be 
dispersed. For a person may be ignorant, and therefore 
in spiritual darkness \ yet he may preserve his mind in 
such an honest and healthy condition, that he will be 
able to understand and receive the truth so soon as it is 
presented to him. But there is another and far more 
deplorable kind of spiritual darkness. It is that which 
results from disobedience to the known laws of the 
heavenly life. It is the darkness into which those fall, 
who, under the influence of selfish and evil loves, confirm 
themselves in various false ideas contrary to the revealed 
Word of the Lord. For everywhere and always is it 
true, that "he who doeth evil hateth the light, neither 
cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved.' ' 
Persons who, under the prompting influence of infernal 
loves, disregard and trample on the laws of their inner 
life, and so obscure their moral perceptions, come at last 
to hate the light of truth, and shun it as owls and bats 
shun the light of day. Their understanding becomes 



60 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

diseased ; their mental eye, adjusted to error. And how- 
ever bright the truth may shine, they do not see it. To 
them it appears as falsity. They " put darkness for light 
and light for darkness. M Therefore the Lord says : "If 
thine eye be single [or more correctly, sound, healthy] 
thy whole body shall be full of light ; but if thine eye be 
evil [i. e., unsound, diseased], thy whole body shall be 
full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee 
be darkness, how great is that darkness!'' Matt. vi. 
22, 23. 

Agreeably to this, Swedenborg often tells us that the 
denizens of heaven dwell in light inconceivably more 
brilliant than the light of this world ; while those in 
hell live in great darkness — for their understandings are 
darkened by innumerable falsities originating in evil 
lusts. Milton had a perception of this great truth when 
he sang : 

" He that hath light within his own clear breast, 
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day; 
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, 
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun, 
Himself is his own dungeon." 

There is a great darkness within all evil spirits, and this 
produces the darkness without ; for in the other world 
everything without is but the reflection, under the great 
law of correspondence, of the state or quality of life 
within. But evil spirits do not appear to themselves to 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 6 1 

be in such darkness as they really are. Neither do evil 
men, whose understandings are darkened by falsities 
originating in evil loves. They even imagine themselves 
in clearer light than others. And so do the devils think 
they -see far better than the angels. But their light is the 
light of fatuity — the dim (yet mercifully accommodated) 
light of perverted natures — which, compared with the 
light that shines in heaven, is as the light from ignited 
coals compared with the splendor of the noon-day sun. 

From what has been said, and from the correspond- 
ence of light and darkness, we may see why the Divine 
Saviour — the embodiment and living manifestation of 
the Truth — calls himself " the light of the world " ; and 
why He says to those who had not previously known the 
truth, but had nevertheless kept themselves in a state to 
receive it, "They that sit in darkness and in the shadow 
of death, upon them hath the light shined.' , We may 
see also why it is said that " God is light, and in Him is 
no darkness at all"; and of the wicked, that "they 
walk in darkness," and will finally be "cast into the 
outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." 

All who do not, while here on earth, resist and over- 
come their evil loves, find themselves in that "outer 
darkness ' ' when they enter the other world ; for through 
the indulgence of their evil lusts they shut out the light 
of God and the things of his wisdom from their minds. 
They are, therefore, excluded from the kingdom of 



62 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

heaven, having no heaven, and no love for the things 
which constitute heaven, in their hearts. Whatever 
truths they have ever known, they now reject and turn 
away from, because such truths condemn their evil loves. 
And so they immerse themselves altogether in falsities, 
for these are in agreement with their evils. Hence 
there are endless strifes and bickerings among them ; for 
each one fights for his own falsity, and calls it truth. 
And the jarring discord and angry disputes among those 
who are in falsities, joined also with mutual hatred, 
derision and contempt, are what the gnashing of teeth 
corresponds to, and what it, therefore, spiritually denotes. 

GEHENNA AND THE LAKE OF FIRE. 

But the Bible speaks of a fire in the great Hereafter — 
of the fire of hell, the everlasting fire, a furnace of fire ; 
a lake burning with fire and brimstone, etc. And in 
this hell-fire, or lake of fire, it is said that the wicked 
will have their part. And the rich man in the parable is 
represented as saying, " I am tormented in this fiame ; " — 
and this, after he had died and was buried. 

I presume few intelligent Christians now-a-days think 
of interpreting such language according to the strict 
sense of the letter — as it was interpreted a hundred years 
ago. They will tell you that this language is figurative, 
though none of them may be able to tell precisely what 
was meant to be conveyed by it. But Swedenborg, in 
his great doctrine of Correspondence, has furnished the 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 63 

true key to its meaning. He has given us the spiritual 
meaning of hell-fire, or the Gehenna of fire, and told us 
what it is in the human soul that fire corresponds to. 

But as the literal sense is the foundation of the spir- 
itual, it is necessary always to give careful attention to 
this first. 

In the original Greek, Gehenna is the word translated 
hell, where the fire of hell, or the hell of fire, is spoken of. 
And Gehenna is a Hebrew word transplanted into the 
Greek, with but little variation in its form. It is composed 
of two other Hebrew words, Gai or Ge, which means a 
valley, and Hinno7n, the name of a man. The literal 
meaning, therefore, of Gehenna is, the valley of Hinnofn. 
This valley was south-east of, and near to, Jerusalem. 
The brook Kedron ran through it. Here the Jews at 
one time practiced the most impious idolatry. They 
had an image dedicated to Moloch, to which they offered 
in sacrifice not only bulls, lambs, rams, etc., but even 
their own children, who were placed in the arms of the 
image previously heated by a fire within, and thus were 
quickly destroyed. On this account the place subse- 
quently came to be regarded with such abhorrence, that 
it was made the common receptacle of all the filth and 
rubbish of the city. The dead bodies of animals as 
well as of the most notorious criminals, were there 
thrown into one common heap. And a fire was kept 
continually burning to prevent the atmosphere from be- 
coming pestilential — the worms, meanwhile, reveling in 



64 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

a luxurious repast upon the remains of the rubbish which 
the fire failed to consume. 

Here we have the primary, literal signification of the 
Gehemia of fire, which our translators have rendered hell- 
fire. It means the fire that burned in that loathsome 
valley of Hinnom. And as the last punishment and dis- 
grace of condemned criminals was, to cast their dead 
bodies into that valley or that fire, the place came to be 
used as an appropriate symbol of the condition of those 
in the other world, who had violated, and persisted in 
violating, the laws of eternal love and justice revealed 
in the Divine Word. 

But what is the precise spiritual meaning of this hell- 
fire, or Gehenna of fire, as elicited by Swedenborg's 
grand Key — the rule of Correspondence?' And we 
must never forget that the spiritual meaning. of Scripture, 
if we can ascertain what that really is, is its true mean- 
ing. For the Lord has himself declared that his words 
"are spirit and life." 

What, then, is the spiritual correspondent of fire? 
Swedenborg answers, "Love." Love, he says, is spirit- 
ual fire or heat. Love is life ; and every man, therefore, 
has some kind of love, because he has life. To wholly 
deprive him of We, would be to extinguish the vital 
spark — yes, to annihilate him. Love is the motive 
power in whatever a man thinks, wills, says or does. 
As heat is the proximate cause of all activity, germina- 
tion, expansion and growth in the natural world, so love 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 65 

is the cause of all activity, germination, expansion and 
growth in the moral or spiritual realm. Deprived of all 
love, a man would be like the earth deprived of all heat 
— unproductive and dead. While the more passionately 
he loves any object or being — it may be a woman, it 
may be wealth, it may be literary or scientific fame, it 
may be civil or military glory — the more alive and 
active he is. See how the lower kinds of love — the 
purely selfish and worldly — the love of gold or glory, 
incite men to days of toil and nights of watchfulness ! 
And the higher and nobler kinds — loves purer and more 
angelic — are the springs of action in all men's higher 
and nobler achievements, in all deeds done to improve 
and bless mankind. Take away all love from human 
hearts, and what would men do then ? And the less pas- 
sionately one loves, the more sluggish he is in thought and 
action — the less is he alive. So obvious is it that love is 
the quickener and enlivener of the human soul, the very 
fire of every man's life. And the character of each one, 
therefore, or the quality of his life, is according to the 
nature of this fire. 

The correspondence between natural and spiritual fire, 
or natural and spiritual heat, is placed beyond a doubt 
when we reflect upon the fact that the body grows warm 
in proportion as any kind of love is enkindled or inten- 
sified in the soul. The love may be impure and devil- 
ish, such as those feel who are full of anger or revenge ; 

still it produces bodily heat ; the face reddens and the 
6* E 



66 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

circulation is quickened. Again, the body grows cold 
as love departs, or as its activity ceases. All of which 
proves that there exists, between natural heat or fire and 
spiritual heat or love, a relation like that between cause 
and effect. And this kind of relation is what Sweden- 
borg means by Correspondence. 

It is for the same reason, also, that the bodies of chil- 
dren and young persons are usually warmer than those 
of the aged. They have more love in their hearts, or 
their love is more active \ and this quickens the circula- 
tion of their blood. For a similar reason, again, we call 
persons whose hearts are full of love and sympathy, 
Z£w/;z-hearted ; and those who seem to have no love for 
anybody, cold-hearted. Then how often do we hear 
Christians pray that the Lord would kindle in their hearts 
a heavenly fire ! And sometimes they pray that He 
would warm them with his love. For the same reason 
we hear it said of an angry man, especially if his anger 
breaks forth in deeds of violence, that he is inflamed, 
burns with anger, is all on fire, etc. And does not the 
internal fire at such times manifest itself in the counte- 
nance as well as in the gestures and tones of the voice ? 

Furthermore, the wise man says: "A hot mind is a 
burning fire." And the inspired Psalmist calls the Lord 
" a consuming fire" ; and says that " a fire goeth before 
Him, and burneth up his enemies round about Him." 
Does any one believe that the Lord is literally a con- 
suming fire? or that He literally burns up his enemies? 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 67 

No : This language, like all of the inspired Word, is 
the language of correspondence. It contains a spiritual 
meaning. And in this, which is its true meaning, it ex- 
presses the intensity of the Divine Love, and its effect 
upon the wicked. Those who are in states of opposition 
to the Lord, change his love in themselves into its oppo- 
site ; just as the deadly night-shade changes the sweet 
dews and sunshine into poison. They cannot receive 
his love as it is, because of their own state. They, feel it 
as something wrathful, fiery, burning. To them it is as a 
consuming fire ; for they change its nature at the moment 
of receiving it. In its origin all love is pure and good ; 
for it is all from Him who is Love itself. But its quality 
or nature is changed in the recipient subjects. (See Swe- 
den?) org' s Heaven and Hell, n. 569.) 

Now there are in general two very different and even 
opposite kinds of love. There is a love of the Lord and 
the neighbor, which is good \ and there is a love of self 
and the world, which, when it reigns supreme in the 
heart, is evil, and prompts to all kinds of wickedness. 
And one or the other of these loves bears rule in every 
man, spirit, or angel, and constitutes the very fire of his 
life. Good men and angelic spirits live in the former, 
and wicked men and evil spirits live in the latter kind 
of love. There is, therefore, a heavenly and a hellish 
love ; or, speaking in the language of correspondence, 
there is a heavenly fire and a hell fire — the term fire de- 
noting the love or delight which constitutes the life. 



68 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

"Infernal fire," says Swedenborg, "is the love of 
self and the world \ therefore it is every lust which 
springs from these loves ; for lust is love in its continuity, 
since a man continually lusts after what he loves ; and 
it is likewise delight, for what a man loves or lusts 
after, he perceives as delightful when he obtains it; nor 
is heart-felt delight communicated to him from any other 
source. 

"Infernal fire, therefore, is the lust and delight which 
spring from the love of self and the world as from their 
fountain. The evils originating in these two loves, are 
contempt of others, enmity and hostility against those 
who do not favor them, envy, hatred and revenge, and 
as a consequence of these, savageness and cruelty. And 
in regard to the Divine, they consist in the denial, and 
hence in the contempt, mocking, and reviling of the holy 
things belonging to the church; and after death, when 
man becomes a spirit, these evils are turned into anger 
and hatred against those holy things. . . . These are the 
things signified by fire in the Word, where the wicked 
and the hells are treated of." — Heaven and Hell, n. 570. 

The supreme love of self, therefore, according to the 
New Theology, together with all the unholy passions and 
malignant feelings which proceed from it, and the infer- 
nal delight felt in the indulgence of filthy lusts, is what 
is meant by hell-fire in the true spiritual sense. This is 
what the Gehenna of fire corresponds to ; for the delight 
arising from the gratification of mean, base, and purely 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 69 

selfish desires, is a flame supported by that heap of spirit- 
ual filth and rubbish, which renders the heart of man 
unclean. 

From what has now been said, the meaning of that 
"lake of fire burning with brimstone" spoken of in the 
Revelation, in which "the fearful, and unbelieving, and 
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sor- 
cerers, and idolaters, and all liars ' ' shall have their part, 
is sufficiently obvious. Brimstone corresponds to the 
filthy lusts of the natural man. These, through un- 
bridled indulgence, feed and support the flame of infer- 
nal love, as brimstone feeds and supports the flame of 
natural fire. Such lusts are spiritual brimstone. 

Those, therefore, who are immersed in evil concupis- 
cences originating in the love of self, are in precisely 
the state which corresponds to being in a " lake that burn- 
etii with fire and brimstone. ' ' Such a lake is a perfect 
symbol, framed under the law of correspondence, of the 
spiritual condition of the wicked. Hence it is said that, 
in the great Hereafter, they will have their part in this 
lake. They are in it now and here, but not so entirely 
as they will be then and there. 

But a smoke is said to issue from that lake. "The 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." 
What does this mean ? 

If the fire and the brimstone are not to be literally in- 
terpreted, neither is the smoke. If the former are sym- 



70 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

bols of something spiritual, the latter should be so like- 
wise. And so, indeed, it is. 

We know it is the tendency of all infernal passions 
and propensities originating in the love of self, to darken 
the understanding in spiritual things ; — to obscure our 
perceptions of what is just and true and good. While 
the more unselfish a man is, the more reverently he heeds 
the still small voice within him, the more earnestly he 
strives to do the will of the Heavenly Father, the clearer 
becomes his moral vision, the keener his perception of 
the true and right upon questions involving the higher 
and more permanent interests of humanity. Hence we 
read : " If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be 
full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body 
shall be full of darkness." "If any man will do his 
will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be from 
God." "He that doeth truth, cometh to the light." 
Which texts conspire to prove that purity of purpose and 
the faithful doing of the truth, are indispensable to clear- 
ness of mental vision upon subjects of profoundest in- 
terest. But where the love of self is supreme, and there 
is no regard for God or duty, and no respect for the 
great laws of love and justice, there the understanding 
is darkened ; there the moral perceptions are obscured, 
and the true and right are not seen. As saith the in- 
spired penman: "The sun and the air are darkened by 
the smoke of the abyss." 

From this we may see what is meant in the spiritual 



SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 7 1 

sense by "the smoke of the pit," and the smoke that 
"ascendeth up for ever and ever." It is that darkened 
understanding, that mental obscurity which results from 
the fire of a supremely selfish love, which is the fire of 
hell. And in the other world where all outward appear- 
ances correspond to internal states, a cloud of smoke 
actually appears round about infernal societies when they 
are seen in heavenly light. 

Thus we see that the doctrine announced by Sweden- 
borg concerning the nature of hell, however it differs 
from the literal teaching of the Bible, is in perfect agree- 
ment with the teaching of its spiritual sense. No candid 
mind can deny that it is, indeed, the very doctrine of 
the Bible on this subject, and in harmony with the whole 
scope of its teaching as well as with all we know of the 
wisdom of God and the nature of man. 

Then look at its obvious, practical tendency. By 
showing hell to be a state instead of a place, it teaches 
every one to look within himself, at his own heart ; to 
examine carefully his dominant love, his ends and aims in 
life, his ruling principles of action. It teaches us, more- 
over, what that state is : and that those, and those only, 
go to hell, who carry in their bosoms the loves that rule 
in hell ; and therefore that those only escape it, who 
resist and overcome these loves. It shows us that only 
those shun hell, who shun as sins against God the indul- 
gence of the dispositions and loves of hell ; — who shun, 



7 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

from religious principle, all wicked arts and devices, all 
base and dishonest actions, all falsehood, fraud, deceit, 
revenge and hate, all dispositions and actions that tend 
to separate us from God and heaven and bring us into 
fellowship with devils. It teaches further, that if we do 
not, here on earth, strive to do the Heavenly Father's 
will, and so vanquish within us the loves of hell, we 
shall carry those loves with us into the other world, 
where they will burst forth with quenchless rage. 

Thus the practical tendency of this doctrine is good, 
and only good. It tends to make men less regardful of 
self, and more regardful of God and duty; — more 
honest and sincere in their conduct, more kind and 
generous in their feelings, more correct in their prin- 
ciples, more exalted in their aims, more pure in heart 
and life. 



V 



HELL— THE CHOSEN HOME OF ALL WHO GO 

THERE. 

'TT^HAT the reasonableness and truth of the New doo 

-^- trine of hell may be more apparent, and the sharp 

contrast between it and the Old be more clearly seen — 

as well as its consistency with the perfect wisdom and 

love of God, something more must be said about that 

essential element of our humanity — freedom. 

We have seen that the Old doctrine is based upon the 

literal teaching of Scripture wholly divorced from its 

living spirit; and that it is in harmony with the sensuous 

conceptions and sensuous philosophy of a by-gone Age ; 

while the New is eminently spiritual, in strict accord 

with the spirit of the Word, and with the highest spiritual 

conceptions of the most enlightened minds of this New 

Age. The Old makes hell a place, and the casting into 

it a purely arbitrary and willful act of Omnipotence ; 

the New declares it to be a certain state of life which 

each individual forms or develops for himself through 

the voluntary abuse of his own freedom and rationality. 

Every one, therefore, who goes to hell, goes there as 
7 73 



74 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

freely as the tippler goes to the gin-shop, or the profli- 
gate to the brothel. 

Here is one born, we will suppose, and living in a 
miserable, barren, dreary region, where there is little to 
delight the eye or regale the senses. Yonder is a rich 
and fertile country, charming to look upon, abounding 
in fruits and flowers, singing birds and running brooks, 
splendid habitations and magnificent gardens, with 
everything therein that can charm or gratify the senses. 
But the way to that beautiful country is over a rough road 
— across deep ravines and miry places — and sometimes 
through turbulent waters and up steep and slippery ac- 
clivities. But there is no other road to that delightful 
region. Whoever would take up his abode there, must 
encounter all the difficulties of the way. He must climb 
the precipices, and wade the bogs, and wallow through 
the miry places, and ford the swiftly running streams. 

And the dweller in the desert, we will suppose, knows 
all this. Now he may have his choice : — he may remain 
in the dreary region where he was born, or, if he is will- 
ing to endure the hardships of the journey, he may go 
to yonder region so rich and fair, and snuff its balmy 
breezes for the remainder of his life, and gaze upon its 
beautiful scenery, and inhale its sweet perfumes and taste 
its delicious fruits. The choice is offered him \ and he is 
free to choose. He may stay where he is, or go to the 
land of beauty and promise. But if he goes, he must 
endure all the fatigues and hardships of the journey. 



THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 75 

He must accept the conditions, else he can never reach 
there. The proprietor of the country uses no compul- 
sion. He simply says : There it lies ; and this is the 
way to it; and there is no other. Go or stay, as you 
please. But remember, the going involves labor and 
hardship. If you are willing to endure these, that beau- 
tiful country, or as much of it as you desire, shall be 
yours forever. 

Let this desert region represent man's natural state, 
and the beautiful country yonder, the state which he is 
made capable of attaining through spiritual labor and 
conflict with the foes of his own household, and the illus- 
tration is complete. By rising out of or migrating from 
that state of life denoted by hell, we come into the state 
denoted by heaven. It is not by any change of place, 
nor through any exercise of immediate Divine mercy 
that this is effected. It is a purely spiritual migration. 
It is a passing out of a low or exterior spiritual condition, 
into a higher or more interior one. 

And though this change of state is as much a matter of 
the individual's own volition as an act of natural migra- 
tion, or a change of natural locality, and cannot, indeed, 
take place without the exercise of his own free choice, 
yet it has its laws or conditions ; and without the observ- 
ance of these the change cannot be effected. And no 
one can be forced to comply with the conditions. He is 
left to his own free choice. He may remain in Egypt, 
and delve there under the lash of his old task-masters, 



76 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and get^lhat comfort he can from the flesh-pots ; or he 
may (if he choose) leave that country, and go to the land 
of promise — "a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land 
of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pome- 
granates ; a land of oil, olive and honey/' 

But if he choose the latter course, he voluntarily places 
himself under the Lord's government and guidance, and 
may expect at times the chastening hand of paternal 
love to keep him in the right way. " Thou shalt also 
consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, 
so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." He must endure 
all the perils and hardships of the journey. He must go 
"through that terrible wilderness, wherein are fiery 
serpents and scorpions and drought — where there is no 
water." 

But multitudes choose to remain and do remain in 
Egypt. They are not willing to accept the conditions 
on which alone they can rise out of their natural into a 
heavenly state of life. They are not willing to deny 
self, take up the cross, and follow the Lord in the regen- 
eration. They are not willing to deny themselves the 
indulgence of their selfish and inordinately greedy pro- 
pensities. They have no desire and make no effort to 
overcome these propensities, or to bring them into due 
subjection to higher and nobler loves. They prefer 
to follow the bent of their inclinations, and to do as 



THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 77 

their pride and love of self and greed of gain and lust 
of power prompt. 

Multitudes of this class pass from the natural into the 
spiritual world every year. Some of them ultimate their 
supreme selfishness here, in w T ords and deeds befit- 
ting devils \ — in falsehood, fraud, theft, blasphemy, adul- 
tery, murder and other abominations. But some of them 
are, outwardly, quite respectable people. Some of them 
are members of churches — professedly very religious; and 
at times, when they have some selfish end to serve, they 
are (on the outside, at least) kind and benevolent. But 
inwardly, at heart, they are supremely selfish. It is this 
class (and they are to be found among Christians to- 
day, as certainly as they were among the Jews eighteen 
hundred years ago) whom our Lord addresses when He 
says: " For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which 
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of 
dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye 
also, outwardly, appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Every one's real 
character depends on the quality of his heart — on the 
nature, that is, of his ruling love. All whose ruling love 
is the love of self, are devils at heart, though they may 
be saints to outward appearance. 

Now the Lord does not desire to punish these people 
in anyway — either in this world or in the world to come. 
He does not desire that they should suffer, nor permit 
them to suffer, except for their own ultimate good. He 



78 XEW VIEW OF HELL. 

forever desires to improve their condition, and perpet- 
ually works toward this end. But He cannot overcome 
their inordinate self-love without their willing co-opera- 
tion. Before He can do this, they must recognize this 
love as essential evil when it is allowed the mastery, and 
must compel themselves to deny its cravings and to obey 
the laws of neighborly love. So far is the Lord from 
hating these people, or from any desire that they should 
suffer one atom beyond what He knows will be for their 
own good, He pursues them with his infinitely wise and 
pitying love, in the other world as He had previously 
pursued them in this. 

On their first entrance into the spiritual world, they 
find themselves attended and cared for by wise and loving 
angels. And the angels remain with them and perform 
for them every kind office in their power, so long as 
their company is agreeable, or so long as the new-comers 
are willing that they should remain. But soon their in- 
terior selfishness becomes active. Their internals come 
forth into their externals. Their devilish dispositions 
and feelings manifest themselves in corresponding looks, 
words and actions. Their interior and real character 
throws off whatever mask it had previously worn on 
earth, and reveals itself as it really is. The previously 
hidden or concealed quality of their hearts comes out 
there, and is openly and fully revealed. Agreeably to 
these words of the Lord : " For there is nothing covered 
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be 



THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 79 

known." Their externals are brought into perfect agree- 
ment with their internals ; and they show by their looks, 
tones, words and actions, just what they are. They no 
mnger have a divided mind ; but they appear outwardly 
just what they are inwardly. The avenues in their souls 
through which they had previously held some communi- 
cation with heaven, or retained some perception of 
heavenly things, are all closed — closed in tender mercy 
to them. 

Is it not infinitely better for a wolf, that he be wolf 
all through, from inmosts to outmosts? Suppose the 
wolf possessed a kind of human internal, which enabled 
him to see the dreadful ferocity and cruelty of his na- 
ture, and filled him with keenest self-reproach every time 
he invaded the sheep-fold. Suppose he were human in- 
side, but wolf outside ; yet the wolfish propensities were 
so strong and overmastering that they could not be held 
in check. Can we not see what unutterable misery that 
poor creature would endure ? 

It is from tenderest mercy to the selfish and inwardly 
evil, therefore, that, in the great Hereafter the heavens 
of their minds are closed ; that their moral sense, or 
their perception of right and wrong, is completely be- 
numbed or lost ; and that their externals are reduced to 
a state of perfect agreement with their internals. When 
this takes place, they no longer desire to remain in com- 
pany with the angels. The angelic sphere becomes ex- 
tremely disagreeable to them — painfully so; and they 



80 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

withdraw from it as instinctively as owls and bats with- 
draw from the light of day. And then they gravi- 
tate each one to the society of spirits whose character 
is nearest like his own. For in the hells as in ti^ 
heavens there are innumerable societies, some in one 
kind of evil and some in another ; and some more des- 
perately wicked than others — for there are various kinds 
and degrees of wickedness in the other world, as there 
are in this. And the great law of spiritual affinity, which 
is as universal and constant in the spiritual world as the 
law of gravitation is in this, tends to bring those of like 
character together, and to hold them together. 

Every evil spirit, therefore, soon as his interior cha- 
racter is fully developed, gravitates with unfailing cer- 
tainty toward those who are most like himself. Nor 
does he go reluctantly among his like ; he goes there 
willingly, gladly, joyfully, as thieves and profligates on 
earth go among those of like character. He seeks their 
society in perfect freedom, because he finds it congenial ; 
because he prefers it to the society of the good and wise ; 
and he prefers it, because they are like himself. With 
them he feels more at home, more free, more contented, 
more happy than any where else ; — and it is the Lord's 
ceaseless desire and effort to make every one as happy as 
possible. He does not force a single individual to go 
where he does not wish to go in the Hereafter. And 
those who go into any of the societies of hell, go in free- 
dom and from choice. They go there because they find 



THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. Si 

such society more congenial than that of the angels. If 
forced to live in heaven, or in the society of the wise 
and good, they would be out of their proper element ; 
nay, they would be unspeakably miserable. It would be 
far more cruel than it would be to compel persons whose 
eyes are diseased, to dwell in the bright blaze of the 
noon-day sun. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 

" Spirits who come from the world into the other life, 
desire nothing more than to be admitted into heaven. 
Almost all seek to gain admittance, imagining that heaven 
consists only in being introduced and received. There- 
fore also, because they desire it, they are conveyed to 
some society of the lowest heaven ; but when they who 
are in the love of self and the world approach the thresh- 
old of that heaven, they begin to be so distressed and 
tormented interiorly, that they feel hell in themselves 
rather than heaven. Therefore they cast themselves 
down headlong thence ; nor do they find rest until they 
come into hell among their like. 

"It has often happened also that such spirits desired 
to know what heavenly joy is ; and when they heard that 
it is in the interiors of the angels, they have wished to 
have it communicated to themselves. Therefore this 
also was granted, — for whatever a spirit desires, who is 
not yet in heaven or in hell, is granted him if it be bene- 
ficial. But when the communication was made, they 
began to be tortured to such a degree that they knew not 

into what posture to screw their bodies on account of the 

F 



82 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

pain. I saw them force their heads down even to their 
feet, cast themselves upon the ground, and there twist 
themselves into folds, in the manner of a serpent ; and 
this by reason of the inward agony. Such was the effect 
which heavenly delight produced upon those who were 
in delights from the love of self and the world." {Heaven 
and Hell n. 400.) 

Again he says : 

" Most of those who go from the Christian world into 
the other life, carry with them the belief that they are to 
be saved by immediate mercy. But when they are exam- 
ined, they are found to believe that to come into heaven 
is merely to be admitted ; and that those who are ad- 
mitted are in heavenly joy, — being totally unacquainted 
with the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy. Where- 
fore they are told that heaven is not denied to any one 
by the Lord ; and that they can be admitted if they 
wish, and tarry there as long as they please. They who 
have desired this, have also been admitted ; but when 
they reached the first threshold, they were seized with 
such anguish of heart, from the breathing upon them of 
heavenly heat which is the love in which the angels are, 
and from the influx of heavenly light which is divine 
truth, that they experienced infernal torment instead of 
heavenly joy ; and in consequence of the shock they cast 
themselves headlong thence. Thus were they instructed 
by living experience, that heaven cannot be given to any 
one from immediate mercy." — Ibid. 525. 



THE CHOSEN HOME* ETC. S3 

We see this great law of affinity exemplified here on 
earth — among animals as well as the human race. Those 
of the same species or general characteristics, always 
prefer the society of each other. Beavers love to be 
with beavers, bears with bears, wolves with wolves, mice 
with mice. None of these creatures feel quite contented 
or at home in the society of animals of a totally different 
nature. 

And so with the members of the human family. Not 
only do the evil, when left to act in perfect freedom, 
shun the society of the good, but they group themselves 
together according to the kinds and degrees of wicked- 
ness in which they are. Pirates choose the society of 
pirates ; thieves the society of thieves ; counterfeiters the 
society of counterfeiters ; tipplers, gamblers, burglars, 
profligates, the society of persons of their own profession 
— persons most like themselves. So obvious is this truth, 
that it has passed into the proverbs, universally accepted, 
" Birds of a feather flock together;" and "A man is 
known by the company he keeps." 

There can be no doubt, then, that this law of affinity 
is one of the unchangeable laws of the moral universe ; 
and it must, therefore, govern in the arrangements of all 
in the spiritual world — the evil as well as the good. It 
must group congenial spirits into innumerable associa- 
tions. And a most wise and beneficent provision it is, 
too ; — a provision whereby every human being, whatever 
be his character, shall have a home in the Hereafter 



84 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

among just that class of persons whose society he prefers 
and finds congenial to his tastes. 

But the societies of the hells, selfish and wicked as 
they are, are under a government as well as those of the 
heavens. And this government, too, is provided by the 
Lord, and is most wisely and mercifully adapted to their 
condition and wants. It is provided for the best good 
of the devils themselves, as well as for the good of all 
other parts of the moral universe. It is precisely such a 
government as they require ; the only one, indeed, that 
is suited to their state — a government not of love, but of 
fear and force ; for there is no love of the neighbor in 
their hearts, and therefore no desire to promote the 
common good. Hence their violent and malignant pas- 
sions can only be restrained by fear of punishment. 
Says Swedenborg : 

"All the inhabitants of hell are governed by fears; 
some by fears implanted in the world, which still retain 
their influence \ but because these fears are not sufficient, 
and likewise lose their force by degrees, they are gov- 
erned by fear of punishments, and this fear is the prin- 
cipal means of deterring them from doing evil. The 
punishments in hell are various, more gentle or more 
severe according to the nature of the evils to be re- 
strained. For the most part, the more malignant who 
excel in cunning and^ artifice, and are able to keep the 
rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments 
and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others; 



THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 85 

but these governors dare not go beyond the limits pre- 
scribed to them. It is to be observed that the fear of 
punishment is the only means of restraining the violence 
and fury of those in the hells. There is no other." 
{Heaven and Hell, n. 543.) 

Who cannot see that this is the very best kind of gov- 
ernment for those in hell — the only kind, indeed, that is 
suited to their state and needs ? We see that punishment 
there has a beneficent design and a beneficent tendency. 
It is not directly from the Lord, though it results from 
the unfailing operation of laws that He has established. 

"Wherefore," says Swedenborg, "when evil is done 
from an evil heart, then, because it casts away from itself 
all protection from the Lord, infernal spirits rush upon 
him who does the evil, and punish him. This may be 
illustrated in some measure by crimes and their punish- 
ments in the world, where also they are linked together ; 
for the laws prescribe some punishment for every crime, 
so that whoever rushes into crime, rushes also into the 
punishment thereof. The only difference is, that in the 
world crime may be concealed ; but in the other life 
concealment is impossible. From these considerations 
it may be seen that the Lord does evil to no one ; and 
that the case herein is similar to what we find in the 
world, where not the king, nor the judge, nor the law, 
is the cause of punishment to the guilty, since neither of 
them is the cause of the crime committed by the evil- 
doer." (Ibid. n. 550.) 
8 



86 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

Look, now, at the intrinsic reasonableness of this New 
doctrine of hell ; and compare, or rather contrast it with 
that believed and taught a hundred years ago. While 
our reason protests against the Old as utterly absurd, it 
freely and cordially accepts the New. The Old is a 
purely sensuous doctrine, in accordance with a sensuous 
age, a sensuous philosophy, and a sensuous interpretation 
of holy Scripture ; while the New is eminently spiritual, 
in harmony with the conceptions of spiritually minded 
men, with the higher spiritual philosophy, and the spirit- 
ual interpretation of the Divine Word. The Old is ar- 
bitrary — lying quite outside of the domain of law and 
order; while the New is seen to be in perfect accord 
with the known laws of the human soul — the inevitable 
result, indeed, of the violation of these laws. The Old 
presents God as a very monster of cruelty; while the 
New exhibits Him as a wise and tender and loving 
Father, forever pursuing his rebellious children into the 
lowest depths of sin and suffering; clasping his arms 
around even the devils in hell ; providing a congenial 
home for all in the great Hereafter ; and just such a home 
as each one, by the life that he has voluntaril^ormed, 
strengthened and confirmed, is fitted to enjoy, and will 
himself freely choose. 

Who, that is not utterly blinded by prejudice, can fail 
to see that this New doctrine, as compared with the Old 
and once generally accepted view, is as the light of 
noon-day compared with the darkness of midnight ! 



VI. 

THE DURATION OF HELL. 

I" AVING shown where and what hell really is, and 
*■ -^ having exhibited the sharp contrast between the 
Old and the New doctrine in respect to reasonableness ; 
— having shown, also, that the law according to which 
all spirits, the evil as well as the good, associate in the 
great Hereafter, is unquestionably a law of the human 
soul, and must therefore be as enduring in its operations 
as the. soul itself, I proceed next to consider the moment- 
ous question : — 

Is the condition of the wicked in the other world, as 
Swedenborg was permitted to see and commissioned to 
reveal it, to continue substantially the same throughout 
the ages of eternity ? In other words, will those who 
pass into that world in a hellish state of life, remain for 
ever in that state ? Or can men repent, and their ruling 
loves be changed from evil to good, after death ? Can 
the great work of spiritual renewal be commenced in the 
other world (with those who have died in a state of con- 
firmed evil), if it has not been begun in this? Or, as 
some believe and confidently affirm, are "the inverted 
forms of the natural degree which constitute the external 

87 



88 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

body of the infernal in the hells," to be finally destroyed 
through " the unrestrained ultimation given to the ruling 
infernal loves"? — so that the man (when these forms 
are destroyed), " freed from his prison-house in the 
hells," will be "restored to his original infant state of 
conscious existence," ? — will " at once ascend to the plane 
of the New Heaven — his eternal Home — and there, from 
this new point of departure, advance in and to Eternal 
Life"? 

These interrogatories, it will be seen, are only differ- 
ent ways of presenting one and the same question, which 
is commonly stated in this form: "Are the hells to be 
unending in their duration?" — or this: "Will those 
who go to hell after death, always remain there ? Will 
they always continue in an infernal state?" 

This inquiry is not only natural, but it is one which 
cannot be kept down. It rises spontaneously to the 
thought, however its utterance by the lips or pen may be 
suppressed. 

And where shall we look for an answer to this ques- 
tion? To the intuitions of the natural reason? or to the 
unequivocal teachings of Revelation? Is the verdict of 
natural reason worthy of implicit reliance in questions of 
this nature? — perverted, distorted, beclouded as all will 
admit this reason to be. Were reason alone sufficient to 
assure us of our continued and conscious existence after 
the body dies? Reason may have nothing to urge 
against the doctrine of the soul's immortality — nay, it 



ITS DURATION* S9 

may have much to urge in favor of it; but could it prove 
it in such a manner as to give us anything like a com- 
forting assurance of its truth ? 

And if unaided reason could not discern or clearly 
demonstrate even the soul's existence apart from the ma- 
terial body, what could it tell us about the nature, facts 
or laws of that realm which it is to inhabit after the body 
dies ? What assurance could reason alone give us of any 
hell or heaven after the death of the body, or what could 
it tell us of the nature of either ? — to say nothing of the 
more profound and subtle questions like that now before 
us. What need was there of any revelation concerning 
the life after death, if human reason of itself could have 
learned all about it? 

Obviously the Lord saw the inadequacy of reason to 
such sublime discoveries ; and therefore, in tender com- 
passion and love toward us, He supplements the deficien- 
cies of reason by the clearer light of revelation. He 
opens the eyes of chosen seers and prophets, and through 
them reveals truth concerning man's immortality and the 
life after death, which no one's reason without such reve- 
lation could ever have found out. 

Plainly, then, the question before us narrows itself 
down to this : What is the teaching of revelation on the 
subject? Has the infinitely wise and gracious Lord — 
aiming to instruct and bless mankind through his own 
chosen and gifted seers — deigned to tell us anything in 
regard to the duration of the hells ? If so, what is it ? 

8* 



90 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

Any one may reject the revelation, or refuse to believe it 
if he chooses; but in that case he either denies that any 
divinely authorized revelation has been made on the 
subject, or he sets his reason above that revelation ; he 
assumes " to be wise above what is written," yea, wiser 
than the Lord himself. He plants himself outside of or 
above revelation, on precisely the ground occupied by 
the Deistic and rationalistic schools. I cheerfully 
concede every one's right to do this; but doing it, he 
has no right to complain of the logical consequence. 
He has no right to find fault with others for casting him 
into the ranks of those whose fundamental idea he delib- 
erately accepts. 

Have we, then, a divinely authorized revelation on this 
subject? And is that revelation clear and unmistak- 
able? This is the question for those to consider who 
believe in revelation; and my argument is addressed 
exclusively to such. And it is a question which should 
be approached with judicial calmness, and with as much 
freedom as possible from the biasing or blinding influence 
of our own private judgments, feelings, or wishes in the 
case. The question is: Has the Lord spoken on this 
subject? And if so, what has He said ? 

Nowhere but in its literal sense, does the Scripture tell 
us anything about the duration of hell ; for in the 
higher or spiritual sense of the Word, no idea is any- 
where conveyed of time or duration in the sense com- 
monly understood by these words. And it cannot be 



ITS DURATION. 91 

denied that, so far as the Bible in its literal sense 
teaches anything about the duration of hell, it teaches 
that it will be unending. The same terms to indicate 
endless duration, that are applied to heaven, are also 
applied to hell. Its punishment is said to be "ever- 
lasting," and its fire "the fire that never shall be 
quenched." "And these [the wicked] shall go away 
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into ever- 
lasting life." 

And the great majority of the First Christian Church 
have believed, according to the plain teaching of the 
letter, that the hell of which the Bible speaks is to be 
unending in duration, and that those who go there after 
death will remain there for ever. It is plain that the 
Lord intended that those who received his Word (as 
Christians have hitherto for the most part) in its literal 
sense, should believe in the eternity of hell. Otherwise, 
we may be sure that very different language would have 
been employed from what we find wherever the duration 
of hell is spoken of. And if it be argued, as it some- 
times is, that the words "eternal" and "everlasting" 
are occasionally applied in Scripture to things known to 
be of temporary duration, and if the force of the argu- 
ment be .admitted, what follows? Why, simply that the 
Bible teaches nothing in regard to the duration of hell, 
and that no argument can be drawn from its language 
either for or against its eternity. 

Let us turn, then, to that more recent revelation which 



92 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

the Lord has been pleased to make for the establishment 
and upbuilding of a New Christian Church; — a revela- 
tion wherein are disclosed many things concerning the 
life after death, which the First Christian Church was 
not able to bear. Upon no one subject, perhaps, has the 
Lord's servant been more explicit, than upon the dura- 
tion of the hells. The following are some of his clear 
and emphatic statements : 

" Every man's ruling affection or love remains with 
him after death, nor is it extirpated to eternity; since 
the spirit of man is altogether such as his love is ; and 
(what is an arcanum) the body of every spirit and angel 
is the external form of his love, perfectly corresponding 
to the internal form [i. e. to the quality of his love]. 
It is therefore manifest that man remains to eternity of 
the same character as his ruling affection or love is. It 
has been granted me to converse with some who lived 
seventeen hundred years ago, and whose lives are well 
known from the writings of that period ; and it was 
found that every one was still influenced by the love 
which ruled him when he lived in the world." {Heaven 
and Hell, n. 363.) 

" Man, as to his entire life [or character], remains for 
ever such as he is at the time of his death." (Ap. Ex., n. 
174.) "As man is when he dies, such he remains to 
eternity." (Ibid. 125.) 

"It is man's will-faculty that lives after death, and not 
his thinking-faculty except so far as this has been in 



ITS DURATION. 93 

agreement with his will-faculty. ... It may be imagined 
by those who are # not instructed concerning the life after 
death, that they can then easily receive faith when they 
see that the Lord governs the universal heaven, and when 
they hear that heaven consists in loving Him and their 
neighbor. But they who are principled in evil, are as far 
from being able to receive faith after death, that is, from 
being able to believe from a ground in the will-faculty, as 
hell is from heaven. ... If it were possible for spirits 
to believe and become good from mere instruction in 
the other life, there would not be a single individual in 
hell ; for the Lord is desirous of elevating all, how 
many soever there be, to Himself in heaven. For his 
mercy is infinite, because it is the Divine [Love] itself; 
and is exercised toward the whole human race, alike 
toward the evil as toward the good." (Arcana Ccelestia 
2401.) 

"The life of a man cannot be changed after death, 
but must remain for ever such as it had been in this 
world; for the character of a man's spirit is in every 
respect the same as that of his love ; and infernal love 
can never be changed into heavenly love, because they 
are in direct opposition to each other. This is what is 
meant by the words of Abraham addressed to the rich 
man in hell : ' Between us and you there is a great gulf 
fixed ; so that they who would pass from hence to you, 
cannot ; neither can they pass to us who would come 
from thence.' (Luke xvi. 26.) Hence it is evident that 



94 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

all who go to hell, remain there for ever." {New Jeru- 
salem and its Heavenly Doctrine n. 239:) 

" He who is in evil in the world, is in evil after his 
departure from the world; therefore if evil is not removed 
in the world, it cannot be removed afterwards. Where 
the tree falls, there it lies. So also does a man's life, 
when he dies, remain such as it was. Moreover, every 
one is judged according to his deeds; not that these 
are recounted, but because he returns to them and does 
them as before ; for death is a continuation of life, with 
the difference that the man cannot then be reformed." 
{Divine Providence n. 277.) 

"Because it has been granted me during many years 
to be with the angels, and to speak with new-comers 
from the world, I can with certainty testify that every 
one is there explored as to the quality of the life he had 
led ; and that the life which he contracted in the world 
remains with him for ever." (Conjugial Love 524.) 

" Since it has been granted me for many years to be in 
company with the angels, and to converse with those who 
have left the world, I can testify with certainty that every 
one is there examined as to the quality of his past life, 
and that the life which he had contracted in the world 
remains with him to eternity. I have conversed with 
those who lived many ages ago, whose lives I was ac- 
quainted with from history ; and I found them to be of 
a character similar to the description given of them. 



ITS BUR ATI OX. 95 

I have also heard from the angels that no one's life can 
be changed after death." {Brief Exposition n, no.) 

"I have been told by the angels that the life of the 
ruling love [after death] is never changed with any one 
to eternity, since every one is his own love ; wherefore 
to change that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him 
of his life, or to annihilate him." {Heaven a?id Hell n. 
480.) 

"I can testify from much experience, that it is impos- 
sible to implant the life of heaven in those who have led 
an opposite life in the world." Then — after relating 
some experiments made with persons who had imbibed 
the notion that they might receive the life of heaven in 
the other world, however they had failed to obey the 
laws of that life in this — the writer concludes: " From 
these and other experiments, the simple good were in- 
structed that no one's life can possibly be changed after 
death ; and that evil life can by no means be changed 
into good life, nor infernal life into angelic, since every 
spirit from head to foot is of the same quality as his love, 
and therefore of the same quality as his life : and that to 
transmute this life into the opposite, were to destroy the 
spirit altogether. The angels declare that it were easier 
to change a bat into a dove, or an owl into a bird of 
paradise, than an infernal spirit into an angel of heaven." 
(Ibid. n. 527.) 

(See also Arcana Ceelestia n. 3762, 3993, 4464, 4588, 
5145, 7186, 8206, 9061, 10,243, 10,284; True Chris- 



9 6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

tian Religion n. 531, Doctrine of Life n. 8, and other 
places, where the same doctrine is plainly taught.) 

The above quotations and references (and many sim- 
ilar ones might be made), leave us in no doubt as to what 
the doctrine revealed for the New Church on this subject, 
is. I have quoted freely, that the reader may see how 
explicit and uniform and positive Swedenborg is in his 
teaching concerning the impossibility of any essential 
change of character taking place in the other world. 
The time in, which the several works here quoted were 
written, stretches over a period of more than twenty 
years ; yet the essential fact stated is always the same. 
There is not a single point of doctrine on which he has 
been more explicit or more positive. 

Nor does he proclaim the endless duration of the hells 
as his belief or opinion merely, but as a part of the reve- 
lation which he was divinely commissioned to make. 
And not only does he declare the fact over and, over 
again, and without any essential variation throughout the 
long period of his illumination, but he tells us that this 
is what the angels believe and teach on the subject, and 
is what is meant by the passage in the Word which 
speaks of a gulf that cannot be passed over after death. 
And not only so, but he assures us that he saw and con- 
versed with persons known to him from history, who had 
been dead, some of them seventeen hundred years, and 
some for ages, and whose characters had not essentially 
changed since that period. And elsewhere he tells us 



ITS DURATION, 97 

why the character cannot be changed after death, as will 
be shown in a future chapter. 

Now no one is under obligation to accept Sweden 
borg's teaching on this or any other subject. He may 
accept or reject it as suits his inclination. But I submit 
that he cannot consistently accept this man as a teacher 
sent of God — as one divinely illumined and commis- 
sioned to make a new revelation — and at the same time 
discredit or reject such explicit teaching as we find in 
the foregoing extracts. 

Can we suppose the Swedish seer to have been enlight- 
ened as no other man ever was upon spiritual subjects 
generally, yet more in the dark on this one — and by no 
means an unimportant one, either — than some of. us who 
give no evidence of, and make no pretensions to, any 
special illumination ? There is as little reason for be- 
lieving him mistaken in regard to the duration of the 
hells, as there is for believing him mistaken in regard to 
a hundred other things that he tells us he was commis- 
sioned to reveal concerning the great Hereafter. 

We cannot, therefore, reject Swedenborg's teaching on 
this subject, without virtually discrediting his claim as a 
divinely commissioned messenger, and claiming for our- 
selves a higher degree of illumination than he enjoyed — 
upon one subject, at least. 

The eternity of the hells, then, is not a human inven- 
tion. It is not the conclusion of natural reason, nor the 
offspring of an unenlightened mind. It is a matter of di- 

9 G 



98 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

vine revelation, as much so as the immortality of the 
soul, the nature and time of the resurrection, the nature 
of heaven and hell, and the law that determines the asso- 
ciates of each one and the appearance of his surround- 
ings in the Hereafter. Whoever rejects the doctrine, 
therefore, sets his own reason above revelation, or as- 
sumes to be " wise above what is written." Yet the 
revelation is not contrary to enlightened reason, but 
quite in accordance with it, as will be shown hereafter. 

But let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the 
hells are not to be eternal ; — that, ultimately, all the devils 
will become, through a process that no one yet under- 
stands or is able to explain, shining and happy angels. 
Supposing this to be the fact, the time may come when 
the Lord will reveal it to the children of men. But cer- 
tainly that time has not yet arrived. The Lord has not 
yet made such a revelation as justifies any man who 
plants himself upon revealed truth, in maintaining the 
non -eternity of the hells. What right, then, have we to 
preach, on such a subject, a doctrine which the Lord in 
his infinite wisdom has thought proper not to reveal — 
nay, a doctrine the very opposite to that which He has 
revealed ? If it were best for the world in its present 
state that this doctrine be preached, certainly God would 
have known it, and would have vouchsafed the needed 
revelation. But since He has not done this, but has told 
us in the most explicit language that the hells are eternal 
— that a man's ruling love cannot be changed after death 



ITS DURATION. 99 

— shall we assume to be wiser than the Most High, and 
proclaim in advance a doctrine, which (supposing it to 
be true) the Lord in his wisdom has thought proper 
hitherto to conceal from the children of men? 

No : Let us scrupulously guard against such presump- 
tion. Let us reverently acknowledge that the infinitely 
wise One knows what truth, or what measure of truth, is 
adapted to human wants, and what is the proper time to 
reveal it. Under the New Dispensation the Lord has 
plainly taught the eternity of the hells. True or not, it 
is clearly His will that it should be believed and preached 
— for the present, at least — yes, during the continuance 
of this Dispensation. And to believe or teach a different 
doctrine, is either to discredit the revelation that has 
been made, or to assume to know better than the Divine 
Being himself what is true on this subject, or when is the 
proper time to proclaim this truth. 

We see not, therefore, how any one who professes to 
believe in Swedenborg's divine illumination — who re- 
gards him as a man especially prepared, authorized and 
sent of God to make a new revelation — can for a mo- 
ment think of rejecting or questioning his teaching in 
regard to the duration of the hells, or of substituting for 
it the more than doubtful conclusions of his own under- 
standing. Surely it is not wise to shut ourselves in a 
dark room and invoke the feeble glimmer of a lamp, 
when the great orb of day is shining in meridian 
splendor. 



VII. 

SOME EVIDENCE OF ITS DURATION— PHIL O SOPH 
ICAL AND SCRIPTURAL. 

EVERY individual has some ruling love ; and this 
love is his life. His character is according to the 
nature of this love; — heavenly if the love be good, in- 
fernal if the love be evil. And this love each one takes 
with him into the other world, because he takes there his 
life — -his character — his own spiritual organism which 
the ruling love has moulded ; and he can take nothing 
else. 

And according to Swedenborg the ruling love cannot 
be changed after death. If, therefore, it be of an infer- 
nal character, it remains so for ever. The individual will 
have no desire to change his character in the other 
world, or to be anything else than his ruling love 
makes him ; and without such desire we cannot con- 
ceive how any essential change in him can possibly take 
place. And if the character or ruling love undergoes 
no change after death, then the wicked will remain so 
for ever, and the hells will be unending in their duration. 

And this is the solemn fact disclosed by Swedenborg. 

100 



EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. IOI 

Upon no single subject is he more explicit in his teach- 
ings, than upon the unchangeable state of the wicked in 
the other world, and the consequent eternity of the 
hells. The extracts in the preceding chapter furnish 
sufficient evidence of this. And although this question, 
like all others concerning the life beyond the grave, 
is one to be settled mainly by the light of revelation, yet 
revelation rightly understood will ever be found in agree- 
ment with the highest reason. Let us, then, examine 
Swedenborg's teaching on this subject in the light of rea- 
son and of that comprehensive system of spiritual phil- 
osophy which his own writings furnish. 

Consider, first, what takes place with the evil in this 
world ; — and by the evil I mean all those who act, not 
from principle, or from any regard to what in itself is 
just and right, but from purely selfish considerations. 
We know that the love of self is strengthened by being 
indulged ; and weakened only as its cravings are denied. 
Like every other faculty and propensity, it acquires 
strength by exercise. The more it is allowed to have 
complete sway, and to outwork itself in all the multifa- 
rious forms of villany — such as falsehood, fraud, theft, 
adultery, murder — the more hardened does the soul be- 
come, the more benumbed its sensibilities, the dimmer 
its perceptions and the feebler its desire for whatever is 
true and just and right in itself. Let a person go on 
cheating and defrauding from month to month and year 

to year, and he will find himself steadily growing more 
9 * 



102 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and more blind to the odiousness and moral deformity 
of this vice, and less and less inclined to change his 
course. Or let him practice for a considerable time, 
lying, stealing, profane swearing, adultery, or any other 
vice, and his perception of its sinfulness will gradually 
grow more and more obscure, and his inclination to turn 
from it more and more feeble. 

So with every sinful habit in which a man indulges. 
The longer it is pursued the more fully does the evil in- 
clination take possession of him, the more overmastering 
becomes its sway, the darker his understanding, and the 
weaker his inclination to return to the path of innocence 
and rectitude. 'No fact is better established and no law 
of the human soul is more certain than this. 

Now, under the operation of this law, can we conceive 
how spirits in the other world, when self-love, which is 
essential evil, has taken full possession of them, so that 
they are the very forms of that love ; — so that they turn 
from and loathe the society of the good, and love and 
seek the companionship of the wicked ; — so that they 
put darkness for light and light for darkness, and say to 
evil, "Be thou my good" ; — so that they hate and shun 
the light of heaven as owls and bats shun the light of 
day ; — so that they find their delight in doing evil, as a 
wolf finds his in destroying sheep, or a hog his in wal- 
lowing in the mire ; — so that they go from choice each 
one to some congenial society in hell, as freely as the 
tippler, the gambler and the profligate go to their chosen 



EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 103 

haunts ; — when spirits, I say, are brought into this state, 
can we see in any rational light how they are ever to be 
brought out of it ? Can any one give us any rational or 
philosophical explanation of the modus operandi? To 
suppose that they may be brought out some time or 
other and in some way or other, is scarcely less absurd 
than to suppose that a wolf may be changed into a lamb 
or a serpent into a dove. The supposition has neither 
reason, philosophy, experience, nor historical fact to 
support it. 

If heaven could be given by an act of immediate 
mercy, undoubtedly all would finally go there ; and there 
would be no hell. But it cannot. It is an internal state 
which cannot be developed or reached without the indi- 
vidual's own volition and active co-operation. The heav- 
enly character must be developed, the heavenly organism 
and tissues must be formed, else the light and warmth of 
that sweet realm would be as uncongenial as our atmo- 
sphere is to fishes, or as the light of the noon-day sun is 
to owls and bats. Agreeably to this Swedenborg says : — 

"Many spirits entertain the opinion that heaven may 
be given to every one from immediate mercy ; and on 
account of their belief they have been taken up into 
heaven ; but when they came there, because their interior 
life was contrary to that of the angels, they grew blind 
as to their intellectual faculties till they became like 
idiots, and were tortured as to their will faculties so that 
they behaved like madmen ; in a word, they who go to 



104 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

heaven after living wicked lives, gasp there for breath, 
and writhe about like fishes taken from the water into the 
air, and like animals in the ether of an air-pump, after 
the air has been exhausted." — Heaven and Hell, 54. 

Again he says : 

" Conscience is the Lord's presence with man ; and 
this is nearer in proportion as a man is in the affection 
of good and truth. If his presence is nearer than is 
suitable to the degree of a man's affection for good and 
truth, the man comes into temptation. The reason is, 
that the evils and falsities in him tempered with the 
goods and truths in him, cannot endure a nearer pres- 
ence. This may appear from circumstances existing in 
another life, viz., that evil spirits cannot possibly ap- 
proach any heavenly society without beginning to expe- 
rience anguish and torment: — also that hell is removed 
from heaven, because it cannot endure heaven, that is, 
the Lord's presence which is in heaven. Hence it is said 
of them in the Word : ' Then shall they begin to say to 
the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.' 
Luke xxiii. 30." — Arcana Coelestia 4299. See also n. 
4225, '6, 5057, '8, 4674, 1^9- 

It is in tenderest mercy to the wicked, therefore, that 
they are not compelled to live in heaven ; for they would 
be far more wretched among the angels, than they are in 
their own chosen and congenial homes in hell. 

But the heavenly life, some think, will be at last and 
gradually developed in the devils, so that they will aU 



EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 105 

finally become angels. Again I ask, How? Will it be 
developed like vegetable life,- without the volition or 
active co-operation of the spirits themselves ? Is moral 
character ever developed or formed under the laws of the 
vegetable kingdom? Can it be? And are the condi- 
tions and surroundings and influences in the hells, and 
the kind of government that exists there, favorable to the 
development of the heavenly life ? Or is this life to be 
gradually unfolded and strengthened there, in spite of all 
the adverse influences ? If so, will any one tell us how. 
Will he show us the law, or give us some hint of the 
philosophy of this development. 

But God, it is said, wills the salvation and happiness 
of all men. And can we suppose that His will is to be 
frustrated ? — that He will not be able finally to accom- 
plish his purpose? 

And does not God will that men live righteously 
here on earth? — that they shun falsehood, theft, hatred, 
adultery, murder, as sins? — that they practice toward 
each other the laws of neighborly love ? But is the Di- 
vine will accomplished ? As a matter of fact, do all men 
live as the Lord wills that they should ? And if not, 
then is not the Divine purpose so far frustrated ? And if 
frustrated here and now, then why not there and always ? 
No argument for the non-eternity of the hells can be 
based upon the omnipotence of the Divine will, unless 
it can be shown that this will with reference to man is 
never frustrated. And in order to show this, we must 



106 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

concede that all the abominable deeds which men com- 
mit, are done in accordance with the will of God. For 
if not, then the omnipotence of that will does not always 
ensure the accomplishment of the Divine purpose. 

But the mistake arises from overlooking the proper 
characteristics of man, or the nature of the properly hu- 
man faculties. If he were a machine, he might be dealt 
with as a machine ; and the builder or operator would 
alone be responsible for its movements or defects. But 
being man, and endowed with the faculties of liberty 
and rationality, he becomes himself responsible for his 
actions and his character. His salvation and happiness 
are not things that can be forced upon him — -no, not 
even by Omnipotence itself. They are states to be freely 
chosen, sought after, labored for, by himself; and in no 
other possible way can they ever be attained. If we 
could conceive of those, who have become so thoroughly 
confirmed in evil as to love and seek the companionship 
of devils, desiring and laboring for the exalted and un- 
selfish life of heaven, then we might concede the possi- 
bility of the devils being all ultimately converted into 
angels, and the hells blotted out or changed into heavens. 

Then there is a judgment which all have to undergo 
in the other world. And Swedenborg has described 
very fully the nature of that process. It consists in such 
a complete development of each one's internals, or such 
a thorough immersion of the individual in his own 
dominant love, whatever that may be, that he no longer 



EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 1 07 

has a divided mind ; — no longer wears any disguise, or 
appears outwardly different from what he is inwardly. 
This judgment, or letting each man drop, as it were, 
into himself, takes place in the intermediate state, or 
world of spirits. And it is accomplished by means of 
the all-revealing light of truth. " The Word that I have 
spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Swe- 
denborg says : 

"With the wicked, all those things which belong to 
the exterior thought from which they speak, and to the 
exterior will from which they act, are not properly theirs, 
but those things which belong to their interior thought 
and will. 

"When the first state [after death] is passed through, 
which is the state of the exteriors, the spirit is let into 
the state of his interiors. ... In this state he thinks 
from his own will, therefore from his own affection or 
from his own love ; and then his thought makes one with 
his will, and so completely one that he scarcely appears 
to think but merely to will. 

"All men without exception are let into this state after 
death, because it is the proper state of their spirits. . . . 
When a spirit is in the state of his interiors, it mani- 
festly appears of what character the man was in himself 
when in the world ; for he then acts from his selfhood. 
He who was evil in the world, then acts foolishly and 
insanely — more insanely, indeed, than he did in the 
world, because he is in freedom and under no restraint. 



IoS NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

" No one goes to hell until he is in his own evil and in 
the falsities of evil [or until there is a perfect union of 
will and understanding] ; since it is not allowed any one 
there to have a divided mind, that is, to think and speak 
one thing and to will another. Every evil spirit must 
there think what is false derived from evil, and must 
speak from such falsity ; in both cases from the will, thus 
from his own proper love and its delight and pleasure, as 
he did in the world when he thought in his spirit, that 
is, as he thought in himself when he thought from inte- 
rior affection. The reason is, that the will is the man 
himself, and not the thought, except so far as it par- 
takes of the will; and the will is the man's very nature 
or disposition; therefore to be let into his will is to be 
let into his nature or disposition, and also into his life, 
for man puts on a nature according to his life ; and after 
death, he remains of such a nature as he had procured 
to himself by his life in the world, which, with the 
wicked, can no longer be amended and changed by 
means of thought, or the understanding of truth. 

" Every one goes to his own society in which his spirit 
was while he lived in the world ; for every man as to his 
spirit is conjoined to some society, either infernal or 
heavenly. . . .The spirit is led to that society by succes- 
sive steps, and at last enters it. An evil spirit, when he 
is in the state of his interiors, is turned by degrees toward 
his own society, and at length directly to it before this 
[second] state is completed ; and when completed, the 



EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 109 

evil spirit of his own free choice casts himself into the 
hell of those whose character is similar to his own." — 
Heaven and Hell 502-510. 

We see from this that the judgment which every one 
undergoes after death, is merely the bringing of a man's 
externals into perfect agreement with his internals, or his" 
thoughts, words and actions, into agreement with his 
ruling love. It is turning the " whited sepulchres" in- 
side out. It is letting the man drop into himself; so 
that he no longer has a divided mind as he had when in 
the flesh, but is of the same character all through from 
centre to circumference. Unless, therefore, he is subse- 
quently to undergo another stupendous change, of which 
revelation has told us nothing — unless he is to be brought 
back again into his former double-minded state, and the 
heavenly part of him then to be aroused into strong and 
persistent action so as to completely overpower the in- 
fernal part, we cannot see how he is ever to be brought 
out of his hellish state. For we must remember that 
there are no germs of heavenly life in man — no "remains ' ' 
of good and truth implanted by the Lord — which can 
develop under the laws of vegetable growth, or without 
the individual's own volition. We know of no such in- 
voluntary development of the heavenly life in this world ; 
nor can we conceive of any such in the world to come. 

Equally unphilosophical, too, and alike unsupported 
by reason and revelation, is the idea that, at some indefi- 
nite period after the judgment here referred to, the 
10 



HO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

sinner will die or be destroyed "that the man may be 
saved " — meaning by the sinner "the inverted forms of 
the natural degree, which constitute the external body 
of the infernal in the hells." There is no such "sinner" 
then and there, apart from the living, conscious, im- 
mortal individual; — no such "external body" that may 
be sloughed off, leaving "the man in his original infant 
state of conscious existence " — "the actual state of the 
infant man of the New Heaven." All this is mere 
theory, without the slightest foundation in fact, philos- 
ophy, or duly authenticated divine revelation. 

Swedenborg's teaching, then, in regard to the eternity 
of the hells, is clearly in accordance with reason and the 
highest spiritual philosophy of which the world has any 
knowledge. 

And the Bible, so far as it teaches anything on the 
subject, confirms the testimony of reason and philos- 
ophy. It speaks of the wicked in the Hereafter, going 
away "into everlasting punishment," while the right- 
eous go into "everlasting life"; — of a great gulf be- 
tween the evil and the good, which cannot then be passed 
over; — of a fire that "never shall be quenched." It 
assures us that, in the other world, every one will be 
judged and rewarded according to his works. "The 
dead were judged out of those things which were written 
in the books, according to their works." " The word 
that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last 
day." The blessing of the higher, even the heavenly 



EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. m 

life, is promised to none but those who keep or do the 
Lord's commandments; nor dp we find in Scripture any 
warrant for the belief that others will ever enter in 
through the gates into the city \ — for what other way is 
there, save by religious obedience to the laws of the 
heavenly life ? 

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that 
they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in 
through the gates into the city. 

" For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremon- 
gers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie. ' ' 

Nor does the Bible tell us, or any where intimate, that 
these latter will ever enter into the blessedness of eternal 
life. But all who thirst for and are willing to. take of its 
waters, may enter in. Therefore it is written again : " Let 
him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him 
take the water of life freely." 

But Swedenborg has himself told us why a man's 

ruling love cannot be changed after death; and why, 

therefore, the hells must be unending in their duration. 

It may be alike interesting and instructive to consider 

some of his reasons, which I shall proceed to do in the 

next chapter. 
9 



VIII. 

WHY CANNOT THE RULING LOVE BE CHANGED 
AFTER DEATH? 

^T^HE doctrine revealed for the New Church — revealed 
-*- so clearly, too, that there is no ground for a dif- 
ference of opinion on this subject — is, that the love 
which rules supreme in the heart of man at the time of 
or previous to his death, will forever remain unchanged 
in its nature. Very often does the illumined herald of 
the New Church declare, that, " As man is when he dies, 
such he remains to eternity. " " The life of a man cannot 
be changed after the body dies. M ' ' If evil is not removed 
[from the soul] in the world, it cannot be removed after- 
ward." "The life which a man contracts [or forms for 
himself] in the world, remains with him for ever." 
"To change the ruling love in a spirit, would be to de- 
prive him of his life, or to annihilate him." " No one's 
life can possibly be changed after death." "Evil life 
can by no means be changed [after death] into good life, 
nor infernal life into angelic." "The angels declare 
that it were easier to change a bat into a dove, or an 

owl into a bird of paradise, than an infernal spirit into 
112 



CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 113 

an angel of heaven." "Infernal love can never be 
changed into heavenly love [after death]. . . . This is 
what is meant by the words of Abraham addressed to the 
rich man in hell : i Between us and you there is a great 
gulf fixed, ' " etc. "Hence it is evident that all who 
go to hell, remain there for ever." 

In such clear and explicit declarations on this subject, 
do the writings of Swedenborg abound. If then, we 
accept his teachings concerning the future life, as a di- 
vinely authorized revelation of the solemn realities of 
the spiritual world, we must believe that a person's ruling 
love cannot be changed after death \ and therefore that 
the condition and character of the wicked in the Here- 
after, will remain essentially the same to all eternity. 

And we cannot reject this doctrine, or set up another 
in its place, viz. this : — that all who pass into the other 
world in an infernal or supremely selfish state, will ulti- 
mately be brought out of that state and become shining 
angels — without undermining or deranging the entire 
system of Swedenborg' s spiritual philosophy. To be 
consistent, we must set aside his doctrine of degrees \ his 
doctrine concerning the nature of the final judgment; 
his doctrine of human freedom and the law of moral 
growth ; his doctrine of spiritual equilibrium ; together 
with his great law of spiritual affinity which determines 
all associations in the spiritual world. So intimately are 
all truths linked or dovetailed together, that it is no easy 

matter to remove one, or substitute a falsity in its place, 
10* H 



H4 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

without disturbing the entire system of which that truth 
makes a part. 

The great Swede's doctrine on this subject, then, has 
the merit of perfect consistency; while any different 
doctrine is seen, upon slight examination, to be in direct 
conflict with other facts and laws announced by him, the 
obvious truth and rationality of which compel the assent 
of intelligent and candid minds. 

But not only has Swedenborg declared the fact that a 
man's ruling love cannot be changed after death, but he 
has told us why it cannot. In proclaiming the endless 
duration of the hells, he has at the same time given us 
the philosophical reason. It is, that when the ruling 
love is fully unfolded, and everything that disagrees with 
it is rejected, hated, loathed, the individual is then pre- 
cisely what this love makes him from centre to circum- 
ference. If it be the love of self, then he is selfish all 
through ; just as a crocodile is a crocodile, a wolf a wolf, 
or a serpent a serpent all through. And he has no more 
desire to change that love, or to receive an unselfish, 
heavenly love in lieu of it, or to become any other than 
the supremely selfish being that he is, than a wolf has 
to become a sheep, or a serpent a dove. And without 
the desire to overcome the love of self, and to have the 
opposite heavenly love implanted or developed in the 
soul, can we conceive it possible that this change will 
ever take place ? Human character in this world or in 
the world to come, is not, as I have before remarked, 



CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 115 

developed under the law of vegetable growth. Its for- 
mation everywhere implies the exercise of human voli- 
tion, and never takes place without it. A vegetable germ 
unfolds into a plant or tree according to an implanted 
instinct or law of its nature, and without volition. But 
is there any human germ, hidden away in the inmosts or 
elsewhere of the human spirit, — can there be any — that 
will ever develop into true manhood or womanhood in 
like manner? — that is, without conscious volition on the 
part of the individual ? And if the properly human or 
heavenly growth can never take place without volition, 
how can the needed volition spring up in the soul of 
one who has passed the ordeal of judgment, and become 
thoroughly and supremely selfish ? 

True, there is but one life ) and all life in derivative 
forms, is one and the same in its origin. The same 
exhaustless Fountain that vitalizes the organism of the 
sheep, supplies the wolf also with life. The form into 
which the life flows, makes all the difference in its qual- 
ity or manifestations. And we cannot conceive how a 
wolf could be changed into a sheep, without such a com- 
plete change in its entire organism, as would utterly 
destroy its identity. And this destroyed, where is the 
original wolf? Annihilated, beyond question. 

Let us hear, now, the reasons which Swedenborg him- 
self has given, showing why a man's ruling love cannot 
be changed after death. He says : 

"I have also heard from the angels that no one's life 



lib NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

can be changed after death, because it is organized ac- 
cording to his love and faith, and hence according to 
his works ; and that if the life were changed, the organ- 
ization would be destroyed, which can never be done. 
They further added, that a change of organization can 
only take place in the material body, and by no means 
in the spiritual body after the former has been rejected. 7 ' 
{Brief Exposition n . no; Conjugial Love 524.) 

"1 have been told by the angels that [after death] the 
life of the ruling love is never changed with any one, 
since every one is his own love ; wherefore to change 
that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him of his 
life, or to annihilate him. They also stated the reason, 
which is, that man after death is no longer capable of 
being reformed by instruction as in the world, because 
the ultimate plane which consists of natural knowledges 
and affections, is then quiescent, and cannot be opened 
because it is not spiritual ; that the interiors which 
belong to the rational and natural mind, rest upon that 
plane like a house on its foundation ; and that it is for 
this reason that a man remains for ever such as the life 
of his love had been in the world." {Heaven and Hell 
n. 480.) 

" By washing the feet is meant to purify the natural 
principle of man ; for unless this principle in man be 
purified and cleansed when he lives in the world, it 
cannot afterward be purified to eternity ; for such as his 
natural principle is when he dies, such it remains ; nor 



CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY? 1 17 

is it afterward amended, since it is that plane into which 
interior things which are spiritual flow, it being their 
receptacle ; therefore when this is perverted, interior 
things when they flow in, are perverted in like manner. 
The case herein is as when the eye is injured, or any 
other organ of sense or member of the body ; on which 
occasion interior things feel and act by them no other- 
wise than according to reception therein. Therefore it 
is that man can never be purified to eternity if he be not 
purified as to his natural principle in the world ; this is 
meant by the Lord's words, i What I do thou knowest 
not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' " {Arcana Coe- 
lestia 10,243.) 

Then there are degrees belonging to the mind ; and 
the influx of life is through the higher degrees to the 
lower \ and the quality of the life that inflows, or the 
character of the individual, is according to the form of 
the natural degree which receives the influx. If this 
degree is in a disordered or hellish form, it changes 
God's love and wisdom as they flow in, into their oppo- 
sites ; comparatively as the fox-glove or deadly night- 
shade changes the sunshine and the rain and the sweet 
dews of heaven into poison. But if this degree be re- 
generated or restored to order, then the whole man is 
regenerated. Life being received into an orderly nat- 
ural form, is felt and manifested as the true life. 

The character, therefore, of the lower or natural degree 
of a man's mind, since it determines for ever the quality 



Il8 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

of the life that inflows, must necessarily determine for 
ever the character of the man. The interior life is ter- 
minated in, and therefore takes on the character of, the 
external or natural life, just as the light and heat of the 
sun, terminating in hideous forms and excrementitious 
substances, take on the ugliness of the one and the offen- 
siveness of the other. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 

"A man's interiors are distinguished into degrees, and 
in every degree are terminated, and by termination sepa- 
rated each from the interior degree ; and this from the 
inmost to the outermost. . . . These degrees in man 
are most distinct; hence, if he lives in good, he is as to 
his interiors a heaven in its least form, or his interiors 
correspond to the three heavens. And therefore if a 
man has lived the life of charity and love, he can after 
death be translated even into the third heaven : but in 
order to acquire such a capacity, it is necessary that all 
his degrees be well terminated, and thus by terminations 
be distinct from each other ; and when they are termin- 
ated, or by terminations are made distinct, every degree 
is a plane in which the good inflowing from the Lord 
rests and is received. Without these degrees as planes 
good cannot be received but flows through, as through 
a sieve or a perforated basket, even to the sensual [plane], 
and in that is changed to what is filthy, viz., into the 
delight of self-love and the love of the world, conse- 
quently into the delight of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adul- 
tery, avarice, or into mere voluptuousness and luxurious- 



CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 1 19 

ness, which delight appears to those who are in it as 
good. . . . 

"In the other life especially it is discovered whether 
the things of a man's will have been terminated or not. 
With those in whom they have been terminated, there is 
a zeal for spiritual good and truth, or for what is just 
and right; for they had done good for the sake of good 
and truth, and had acted justly for the sake of what is 
just and right, not for the sake of gain, honor, and the 
like. All those with whom the interiors of the will have 
been terminated, are elevated to heaven, for the influent 
Divine can lead them ; but all those with whom the inte- 
riors of the will have not been terminated, betake- them- 
selves to hell, for the Divine flows through and is turned 
into what is infernal, as in the case of the sun's heat, 
which falling upon filthy excrements, produces a foul 
stench." {Arcana Ccelestia 5T45.) 

"With things relating to spiritual birth, the case is 
such that reception must be altogether in the natural 
principle. This is why, during man's regeneration, the 
natural principle is first prepared to receive \ and so far 
as this principle is rendered capable of receiving, so far 
interior goods and truths can be brought forth and mul- 
tiplied. For this reason also, if the natural man be not 
prepared to receive the truths and goods of faith in the 
life of the body, he cannot receive them in the other 
life, and therefore cannot be saved. This is what is 
meant by the expression so often used, that, as the tree 



120 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

falls, so it lies ; or, as a man dies, so his state remains. 
For man has with him in the other life all the natural 
memory, or the memory of the external man, but is not 
permitted to use it in that life \ wherefore it is there as a 
fundamental plane into which interior truths and goods 
fall; and if that plane is incapable of receiving the truths 
and goods which flow in from an interior principle, they 
are either extinguished, perverted or rejected." (Ibid. 
4588.) 

These degrees of the mind, Swedenborg tells us, exist 
in every man, "from his birth potentially, and actually 
when opened." And he tells us, also, how the higher 
or heavenly degrees of life are opened ; and that every 
one after death, "enters that degree which was opened 
within him in the world." {Divine Love and Wisdom 
238.) But evil, or the indulgence of a supremely selfish 
and worldly love by the natural mind, closes more and 
more firmly the higher or heavenly degrees. 

"In such a man — [one who 'delights in all kinds of 
wickedness, as in adultery, fraud, revenge, blasphemy, 
and so on'] — the spiritual mind is more and more 
firmly closed ; the confirmation of the evil by the false 
especially closes it. Therefore evil and the false once 
confirmed, cannot be extirpated after death; this can 
only be done in the world by repentance." (Ibid. 262.) 

I have quoted freely that the reader may see the rea- 
sons given by Swedenborg himself, why a man's ruling 
love cannot be changed after death ; and why, therefore, 



CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY? 121 

the hells must be eternal in .duration. And they are 
reasons, we observe, growing' out of, harmonizing with, 
and making indeed a part of, his grand and comprehen- 
sive system of spiritual philosophy. So that, in adopt- 
ing a different view from the one he has taught in regard 
to the duration of the hells — in denying their eternity, 
and insisting that, some time or other and in some way 
or other, the ruling love will be changed after death, 
and the devils be all converted into angels — we not only 
reject a doctrine as clearly revealed as anything can be, 
but we are compelled also to sweep away so much of his 
spiritual philosophy as would leave his whole system tot- 
tering. We are compelled to deny that the life's love 
can become so inwrought into the spiritual organism 
during one's earthly pilgrimage, that an entire change 
in the quality of the love would involve annihilation, or 
a total destruction of the soul's organism (C. L. 524; 
H. H. 480). We are compelled to deny, what we are 
repeatedly assured the angels affirm, that the interior 
things of the mind, resting for ever on the ultimate or 
natural plane of life developed here on earth " like a 
house on its foundation," will for ever be in Harmony or 
correspondence with that plane. (Ibid.) We must deny, 
too, that there is any such eternal and indissoluble con- 
nection between the life here and the life hereafter, as 
Swedenborg has declared ; or that any such cleansing of 
the external or natural man here below as he alleges, is 

essential to that internal purification without which there 
11 



122 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

can be no heaven. (A. C. 10,243.) We must deny the 
declared existence of degrees to the mind \ or that no 
higher degree of life can be entered and enjoyed in the 
other world, than the degree which has been opened in 
this. We must deny that the lower or natural degree 
bears any such fixed and permanent relation to the 
higher, as the eye bears to seeing or the ear to hearing. 
And considerably more must we deny, if we would be 
consistent. 

Who that has studied Swedenborg enough to grasp a 
tithe of his deep and comprehensive philosophy, and 
has felt constrained by the illuminating power of his 
writings to acknowledge that he was, indeed, a man or- 
dained and sent of God, dares venture on such a string 
of denials ? Yet they all follow inevitably from the de- 
nial of his doctrine concerning the eternity of the hells, 
or the assumption that a man's ruling love may be 
changed after death. 

Then apply to the doctrine taught by Swedenborg on 
this subject one other test — that most searching one 
of all — that divinely authorized touch-stone of truth and 
of error expressed in the formula, " By their fruits ye 
shall know them." 

Judge the doctrine by its fruits — that is, by its obvious 
influence on the character of believers. Compare it 
in this respect with that other doctrine which some 
would substitute in its place — viz., the doctrine that 
a man may repent and his ruling love be changed in 



CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 123 

the other world, and the devils be ultimately all con- 
verted into angels. 

The New Church doctrine says: " Keep the com- 
mandments 3 shun evils as sins ; deny self, take up the 
cross and follow the Lord. For if you do not, while on 
earth, begin the great work of building up the kingdom 
of heaven in your heart, you will have no inclination to 
begin this work beyond the grave ; and that blessed 
kingdom will, therefore, never be yours." 

The other doctrine, stripped of its fine rhetoric and 
speaking in the plainest language, says: "It is best, of 
course, to keep the commandments. This will carry you 
to heaven quickest. But live as you will — sin as you 
may — trample on all the laws of God as you choose — in- 
dulge your avarice, your lust, your pride, your selfish- 
ness, your hate, to any excess — develop and strengthen 
within you the life of hell to whatever extent — and God 
will some day, spite of yourself and every other obstacle, 
bring you out of that hellish state, and make you a 
shining and happy angel. " 

Now which of these doctrines is it best for men to 
believe ? Which is most stimulating to the better part 
of our nature, and most helpful in repressing and re- 
straining the worse? Which is most likely to excite to 
prayer and watchfulness ? to patience and self-denial and 
holy endeavor ? to inward and persevering conflict with 
the foes of our own household? Which is the most 
wholesome doctrine to preach? — which the most benign 



124 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

in its practical tendency and effects ? It is not difficult, 
I think, to answer these questions. And let us remember 
that " a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.' ' Nor is it 
possible for a false doctrine to exert upon the hearts and 
lives of men a more benign influence than the truth. 



IX. 

DISPLA YS OF THE DIVINE BENIGNITY IN HELL. 

MAN alone, of all created beings, is endowed with 
Liberty and Rationality. These are the properly 
human faculties. Without them he would not be man. 
These are the faculties which alone render him morally 
accountable. Without them, he would have been inca- 
pable of either sin or holiness ; and to have been inca- 
pable of these, he must have been something other than 
man — a very different being from what he is. 

Why is not the w r olf or the bear morally responsible ? 
Why is every other creature incapable of sin ? Simply 
because man alone is endowed with what belongs to no 
other creature — a moral sense — the power to discrimi- 
nate and the liberty to choose between justice and injus- 
tice, right and wrong; or in other words, with the 
faculties of rationality and liberty, which alone distin- 
guish him from the brute creation and make him man. 

But the very possession of these faculties involves a 
responsibility corresponding in magnitude to the dignity 
and worth of the endowment. It involves, moreover, 
the liability of their abuse and utter perversion by the 

11* 125 



126 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

possessor, and the possibility, therefore, of a spiritual 
lapse. And this must have been foreseen by the great 
Giver of these faculties. And now comes the question : 

What shall be done with a man when he fails to dis 
charge the obligations which the gift bestowed on him 
imposes? — when he abuses his properly human faculties, 
and yields to the promptings of his lower, carnal, animal 
nature, regardless of his obligations as a morally ac- 
countable being ? What provision should infinite Love 
and Wisdom make for those who violate, and persist in 
violating, the laws of their spiritual or properly hitman 
nature? To say that their condition will be the same and 
their happiness the same in the Hereafter, as if they had 
faithfully obeyed these laws, is to utter what every en- 
lightened mind sees to be absurd. As reasonably might 
one maintain that no penalty ought to be attached to the 
violation of physical laws; that men ought to be per- 
mitted to eat arsenic without being poisoned ; to handle 
red hot iron without being burned ; to leap from the top 
of Bunker Hill monument without being bruised ; or to 
stick their bodies full of pins without suffering pain. 
There is everywhere and always a penalty attached to the 
violation of law. This is both wise and right. Other- 
wise laws would be without meaning and without force. 

But infinite Love must make the best possible provision 
which infinite Wisdom can suggest, for those who abuse 
their human faculties, and obstinately persist in violating 
the laws of their spiritual being. It is bound by its very 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 127 

nature to do this. And who can- doubt that it will do it? 
The illumined Swedenborg assures us that it actually does 
do it; and he tells us how. Nothing can exceed the 
extent and beauty of the Divine beneficence, as dis- 
played in the provision made for those in the other 
world, who, by a life of evil here on earth, have con- 
firmed themselves in a state of opposition to the Divine, 
and to the laws of their own inner and heavenly life. 

"Life is love," is a remark often made by Sweden- 
borg. And a man's ruling love is his life. His cha- 
racter is according to the nature of this love ; — pure and 
heavenly if the love be pure ; vile and infernal if the 
love be selfish. The ruling love is the inner and ever 
active force, perpetually working to mould the whole 
outer man — his words, tones, looks and actions — into 
perfect correspondence with itself. 

Look at the face of an inveterate miser. How visibly 
is the spirit that prompts and sways him imprinted there ! 
Or that of the confirmed inebriate — is it not the very 
image of bestiality? Or listen to the tones of the hard- 
hearted, cruel and malignant — are they not in perfect 
agreement with the affections from which they proceed ? 
So with hate, revenge, jealousy, despair — every strong 
passion or deep, feeling long indulged — its manifest tend- 
ency is to mould the countenance and the whole outer 
man into perfect correspondence with itself. And on 
the other hand who has not seen the very beauty, bright- 
ness and joy of heaven beaming from the face of one in 



128 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

whose heart love to the Lord and the neighbor has long 
been the ruling principle of action ? 

Now under the operation of this law — a law too gener- 
ally recognized and too long established to be for a mo- 
ment called in question — what ought to be the appear- 
ance of evil spirits in the other world, where infernal 
loves have taken full possession of their souls, from centre 
to circumference? Why, they ought to be monsters in 
form as they are in feeling and purpose. Their looks 
and tones ought to be the true expression of the infernal 
loves that rule them. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 

"All the spirits in the hells, when inspected in any 
degree of heavenly light, appear in the form of their 
own evil ; for every one there is the effigy of his own 
evil, because with every one the interiors and exteriors 
act in unity, — the interiors exhibiting themselves visibly 
in the exteriors, which are the face, the body, the speech, 
and the gestures. Thus their quality is known as soon 
as they are seen. In general, they are forms of con- 
tempt of others ; of menace against those who do not 
pay them respect ; of hatred of various kinds ; also of 
various kinds of revenge. Ferocity and cruelty from 
their interiors are transparent through those forms. But 
when others commend, honor, and worship them, their 
faces are contracted, and have an appearance of gladness 
arising from delight. It is impossible to describe in a 
few words all those forms, as they actually appear, for no 
one of them is similar to another. Among those, how- 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLA YED. I 29 

ever, who are in a similar evil/and thence in a similar 
infernal society, there is a general likeness, from which, 
as from a plane of derivation, the faces of all there 
appear to bear a certain resemblance to each other. In 
general, their faces are hideous, and void of life like 
corpses ; in some cases they are black ; in others they 
are fiery like little torches; in others, disfigured with 
pimples, warts, and ulcers. . . . Their bodies also are 
monstrous ; and their speech is like the speech of anger, 
hatred, or revenge, — for every one speaks from his own 
falsity, and in a tone corresponding to his own evil. In 
a word, they are all images of their own YitM" —Heaven 
and Hell, n. 553. 

And mark here the unspeakable love and mercy of the 
Lord ! — the wonderful display of the Divine benignity ! 
The devils are not permitted to see themselves or each 
other as the hideous creatures they really are. They 
only appear under these disgusting and loathsome forms 
when seen, as Swedenborg saw them, in the light of 
heaven ; for this light aione reveals the real quality of 
persons and things. Seen in the false and fatuous glare 
of hell, nothing appears as it really is. And so the true 
character of the devils — their internal and external de- 
formity — is mercifully concealed from themselves and 
from each other. Their dreadful wickedness does not 
seem to them wickedness, but praiseworthy shrewdness. 
Their unmitigated foolishness seems to them not foolish- 
ness at all, but rarest wisdom. They do not appear to 

I 



130 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

each other like the horrid monsters they are, but like a 
very respectable class of people. In their own light, and 
to each other's eyes, they look not hideous but quite 
human. Their bitter and fiendish tones have in them 
nothing harsh or grating to each other's ears; on the 
contrary they seem quite agreeable and even musical to 
them. Accordingly Swedenborg, after describing the 
loathsome appearance of the devils as seen by himself in 
the clear light of heaven, adds : 

"It is, however, to be observed, that such is the ap- 
pearance of infernal spirits when seen in the light of 
heaven; but among themselves they appear like men. 
This is of the Lord's mercy, that they may not appear as 
loathsome to each other as they do to the angels. But 
this appearance is a fallacy ; for as soon as a ray of light 
from heaven is let in, their human forms are turned into 
monstrous ones, such as they are in reality, as described 
above ; for in the light of heaven everything appears as it 
really is." — Ibid. 

Again he says : 

"Among the wonderful things which exist in the other 
life, this also is one : that, when the angels of heaven 
look into evil spirits, these latter have a totally different 
appearance from what they have when seen among them- 
selves. Among themselves and in their own fatuous 
light, which is like that of a coal fire, as before re- 
marked, they appear to themselves in a human form, and 
also, according to their fantasies, not without beauty ; 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 13 1 

but when the same spirits are looked into by the angels 
of heaven, that light is instantly dissipated, and they ap- 
pear with entirely different faces, each according to his 
character ; some dusky and black as devils ; some with 
pale ghastly faces like corpses ; — some like skeletons ; 
and, more wonderful still, some like monsters, the de- 
ceitful like serpents, and the most deceitful like vipers ; 
and others in other forms. But as soon as the angels 
remove their sight from them, they appear in their above 
mentioned forms, which they have when seen in their 
own light." — Arcana Ccelestia n. 4533. See also A. C. 
4798.— H. H. 481. 

A wonderful display, indeed, is it of the Lord's un- 
speakable love and mercy, that He does not permit in- 
fernal spirits to see themselves or one another as they 
really are ! 

And we have similar illustrations of the Divine be- 
nignity here on earth. The desperately wicked never 
see their own moral deformity. Their eyes are blinded 
out of tenderest mercy toward them ; for to see them- 
selves as they appear in the light of heaven, would cause 
them unutterable agony. Take any class of the most 
hardened villains you can find — those of a character 
nearest allied to that of devils, such as gamblers, thieves, 
swindlers, murderers, fornicators, pimps, pirates — does 
any one imagine that these people see themselves to be 
the dreadful creatures they really are? Have they any 
idea of their terrible moral deformity? Not one of 



*3 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

them, in their ordinary evil state. How can they ? for 
they are not in the all-revealing light of heaven, but in 
the fatuous light of hell ; and this light which is real 
darkness, forever blinds and bewilders. In their own 
infernal light, these fellows appear to each other very 
respectable — appear, indeed, like men ; but in the light 
of the Divine Word, or as viewed by heavenly minded 
people, they appear not as me7i but as monsters. 

And not only are the faces and the whole personal ap- 
pearance of the devils in exact correspondence with their 
evil loves, but all their surroundings exist under the 
very same law, and are produced in the same way. All 
the objects they look upon are but the embodied forms 
of their own evil loves. So that their whole outward or 
phenomenal world is a perfect reflection, under the law 
of correspondence, of their internal or spiritual condi- 
tion. 

Accordingly we are told that the devils appear clad in 
filthy and tattered garments ; that they dwell in deserts, 
bogs, and miry places — some of them in caves and dens 
like those of wild beasts ; that among the objects by which 
they are surrounded, are dreary deserts, rocky and barren 
wastes, thorns and thistles, ferocious beasts and venom- 
ous reptiles, dirty pools and heaps of filth. And these 
things (all of which are spiritual in their nature) are but 
the embodied forms, under the law of correspondence, 
of the filthy and infernal loves of the evil spirits them- 
selves. To quote again from Svvedenborg : 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 133 

"How the delights of every one's life are turned into 
corresponding delights after death, may indeed be known 
from the science of correspondences ; but because that 
science is not yet generally known, I will illustrate the 
subject by some examples from experience. 

"All those who are in evil, and have confirmed them- 
selves in falsities against the truths of the church, and 
especially those who have rejected the Word, shun the 
light of heaven, and betake themselves to subterranean 
places, which through the openings appear very dark, 
and to the clefts of rocks, and there hide themselves. 
And they seek such retreats because they have loved 
falsities and hated truths \ for such caverns, and clefts of 
rocks, and darkness also, correspond to falsities, and 
light corresponds to truth. It is their delight to dwell 
in such places, and undelightful to them to dwell in open 
plains. 

"In like manner do those who have taken delight in 
clandestine and insidious plots, and in the secret con- 
trivance of fraudulent schemes \ these, too, are in those 
caverns, and enter into chambers so dark that they can- 
not even see one another, and there they whisper in each 
other's ears in corners. This is what the delight of their 
love is turned into. 

"They who have studied the sciences with no other 

end than to acquire the reputation of learning, and who 

have not cultivated their rational faculty by means of 

them, and have taken delight in the things of memory 
12 



134 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

from pride thence derived, love sandy places, which they 
choose in preference to fields and gardens, because sandy 
places correspond to such studies. 

" They who have been acquainted with the doctrinals 
of their own church and of others, and have not applied 
any of their knowledge to life, choose for themselves 
rocky places, and dwell among heaps of stones, shunning 
places that are cultivated, because they dislike them. 

"They who have ascribed all things to nature, and 
they also who have ascribed all things to their own pru- 
dence, and who by various artifices have raised them- 
selves to honors, and have acquired wealth, apply them- 
selves in the other life to the study of magical arts, 
which are abuses of divine order, and find therein the 
highest delight of their life. They who have applied 
divine truths to gratify their own loves, and thus have 
falsified them, love urinous places and odors, because 
these correspond to the delights of such love. 

"They who have been sordidly avaricious, dwell in 
huts, and love swinish filth, and such nidorous exhalations 
as proceed from indigested substances in the stomach. 
They who have passed their life in mere pleasures, have 
lived delicately, and indulged their appetites, prizing 
such enjoyments as the highest good of life, love excre- 
mentitious things and privies in the other life. These are 
delightful to them, because such pleasures are spiritual 
filth. They shun places that are clean and free from 
dirt, because such places are undelightful to them." 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 135 

Here, again, we are called to admire the unspeakable 
love and mercy of the Lord as manifested toward those 
in the other world who are " enemies to him by wicked 
works. ' ' For we must remember that all the objects which 
greet their senses— though in reality just as Swedenborg 
has described them — appear very different to the devils 
from what they did to him, or from what they do to our 
imagination — for we are able to contemplate them in some 
degree of heavenly light. The regions they inhabit are 
certainly dismal enough ; but not dismal to them. All the 
objects by which they are surrounded, are really hideous 
and loathsome to angelic natures ; but not hideous or 
loathsome to them. The odors they inhale, so fetid and 
offensive to angels, are by no means offensive to them. 
On the contrary the devils find these things quite agree- 
able and even delightful \ for they accord perfectly with 
their nature ; they agree with their desires or loves ; they 
are in exact correspondence with their life. 

Everywhere and always life seeks that which is in 
agreement with its nature. Nothing else will satisfy its 
cravings. Such is the nature of the devils, that the 
scenery of hell, so dismal and repulsive to our imagin- 
ation, is quite agreeable to them ; — more beautiful, indeed, 
to their eyes than would be the splendors and magnifi- 
cence of heaven. Their life being what it is — degraded, 
bestial, infernal — the objects that surround them are the 
very ones with which they are best pleased ; for they suit 
their tastes, being in perfect correspondence with their 



136 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

life. To them, their dens and caverns seem preferable 
to the most gorgeous palaces of heaven ; their filthy rags 
more seemly than the shining, garments of the angels ; 
their fetid stenches more grateful to their nostrils than 
would be the sweetest perfume from the gardens of the 
blest. "It is delightful 'to the devils," says Swedenborg, 
"to inhabit such places [as caverns and clefts of the 
rocks], and ^delightful to them to dwell in open fields." 
"They love sandy places, and prefer them to fields and 
< gardens." "They love mean and squalid brothels." 
"They love the filth of swine." "They love urinous 
places and scents, because these things correspond to the 
delights of their life." 

I am aware that this will sound very strange to minds 
much confirmed in the old ideas. It will seem to them 
utterly incredible that such unsightly and disgusting ob- 
jects as those above mentioned, should be delightful to 
the devils. But they will see upon reflection that nothing 
could be more reasonable. For are there not animals 
that delight in just such sights and smells here on earth ? 
If so, then these things are agreeable to some kinds of 
life. They are in perfect correspondence with some 
natures, as truly so as beautiful gardens and the perfume 
of sweetest flowers are in correspondence with the nature 
of angels. To crows and kites the smell of carrion is 
not unpleasant, but delightful. Owls and bats prefer 
darkness to light. Mire and filth are not unsightly, but 
beautiful to the eyes of swine ; and the stench of their own 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 137 

stye is quite agreeable to their nostrils. Serpents and 
vipers love the clefts of rocks \ foxes love deserts \ rats 
prefer cellars and subterranean regions ; turtles and croc- 
odiles seek marshy places ; and to the eyes of wolves and 
bears their own dens, undoubtedly, seem more beautiful 
and home-like than would the palaces of kings. 

Who cannot see that the things which such creatures 
prefer for food, the odors they delight to inhale, and the 
places they love to inhabit, affect their senses in a man- 
ner very different from what they do ours? And the 
only reason to be assigned is, that their life is very dif- 
ferent from the properly human. Their loves and conse- 
quent tastes are different from ours. And they choose 
and delight in what is agreeable to their life, as we do 
what is agreeable to ours. Says Swedenborg : 

" The delights belonging to the lusts of evil, and those 
belonging to affections for the good, cannot be com- 
pared ; because resident within the former is the devil, 
and within the latter is the Lord. If a comparison must 
be drawn, the delights of the lusts of evil can only be 
compared to the lasciviousness of frogs in ponds, and of 
serpents in slimy places ; while the delights of affections 
for the good may be compared to mental delights in 
gardens and flowers. For things similar to those which 
are pleasing to frogs and serpents, are also pleasing to 
those in the hells who are in the lusts of evil ; and 
things similar to those which are pleasing to the mind 

in gardens and flowers, are also pleasing to those in the 
12* 



138 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

heavens who are in affections for the good. For as 
before stated, unclean correspondences are pleasing to 
the evil, and clean correspondences to the good." — Di- 
vine Providence n. 40. 

And are there not, even in this world, people who 
seem to prefer disorder, filth and squalor, to order, neat- 
ness and cleanliness? Have you never seen persons, 
who, if they were presented with the most magnificent 
habitation, filled and surrounded, too, with everything 
beautiful, and arranged in the most orderly and tasteful 
manner, would, if left to do precisely as they pleased, 
convert that palatial residence into a vile and loathsome 
place in less than six months? Are there not some 
whose nature (inherited, or acquired by habit,) is so 
near akin to that of certain animals, that they would 
very soon convert the sweetest and most lovely place 
of abode, into a squalid and disgusting stye? Their 
nature is such that cleanliness and order seem far less 
agreeable to them, than filth and disorder. And, place 
them where you will, they will very soon reduce all their 
surroundings to a condition that will reveal with great 
clearness the state of their own minds. So on the other 
hand, place people of refinement and culture in the 
humblest cabin, and they will soon make that cabin 
reveal to the careful observer something of their refined 
and cultivated tastes. And the reason of this is, that every 
kind of life is delighted with, and therefore seeks, that 
which corresponds with its own nature. 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 1 39 

But it does not appear after all, some may say, how 
the devils, having once been men in the natural world, 
can find delight in things which here on earth are known 
to be agreeable only to a low order of animals. 

It does not? Let the reader reflect for a moment. 
What has made those people devils ? What kind of life 
is theirs ? — the life, too, that they have freely chosen ? 
It is not angelic life. It is not properly human. It is 
the life of self and sense — mere corporeal or animal, 
not celestial life. They have marred and spoiled their 
truly human life ; or have suffered it to become stifled 
and overrun by a rank luxuriance of thorns and thistles 
and noxious weeds, which, if not carefully and betimes 
rooted out, are sure to spring up and take possession of 
the natural heart. Only a kind of bestial life, therefore, 
is left them— such life as corresponds to, and forms the 
very essence of, animals like those above mentioned. 
This life, therefore, must from its very nature, seek and 
find delight in scenes and objects which are agreeable to 
such animals. 

Considering the nature of the devils, therefore, or 
the kind of life they have freely chosen and made their 
own, it is most reasonable that the hideous and loath- 
some objects by which they are surrounded, should not 
appear hideous or loathsome to them, but pleasant and 
altogether agreeable ; for they are all in perfect corre- 
spondence with their life's love. And whatever corre- 
sponds to this, is always perceived as delightful. 



14° AUSfT VIEW OF HELL. 

But if this be reall; me will say. what is there, 

after all, to choose between heaven and hell ? What 
great advantage has one over the other? The devils, 
you say, have their delights as well as the angels, though 
they are not delighted with precisely the same things. 
They have what is most agreeable to their nature. Their 
surroundings as well as their associates are such - 
prefer. They go in freedom where they wish to go — 
into the society of congenial spirits ; and there they feel 
quite at home. What great inducement is there, then, 
to strive for heaven, or to shun hell ? 

It is true that every kind of love has its delights. But 
the nature of the delight is according to the quality o\ 
the love. The purer the love, the more exalted the 
delight. The delights of the devils, therefore, as com- 
pared with those of the angels, are as the delights of 
bears and crocodiles compared with those of Christ-like 
men ; yea, they are as the sweetness and tranquillity of 
love, compared with the bitterness and unrest of hatred. 

Why is God so unspeakably happy — the happiest Being 
in the universe ? Because He is the best. Because his 
love is the purest. It is the love of others out of Him- 
self — the love of imparting happiness. And the more a 
man grows to be like God — the more he receives of His 
unselfish love, the more does he enjoy of that sweet 
peace which it is in the very nature of this love to bestow. 
While the less of this love he receives — the more selfish 
and ////-like the Lord he is, the more does he experience 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 141 

of that inward unrest which it is the nature of this oppo- 
site love to produce. 

Who that has ever truly loved — be it husband, mother, 
wife or child — does not know that in the exercise of dis- 
interested love, there is an unspeakable bliss which the 
world cannot give ? The Lord promises peace — his own 
peace — to all who humbly acknowledge Him, and wil- 
lingly consecrate themselves on the altar of duty. 
" Peace I leave with you," says He to all such — u my 
peace I give unto you." There is true peace nowhere 
but in Him ; — nowhere but in the reception and exercise 
of his unselfish love. Therefore He says: "In me ye 
shall have peace." And when those who have followed 
Him in the regeneration, enter the spiritual world and 
come more fully into their life's love, they will receive 
in greater fullness than ever before the delights of that 
love. They will then know, from the sweet seraphic 
joy that floods their souls, the full meaning of the words, 
"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

But they who have yielded habitually to the prompt- 
ings of their lower nature, regardless of God and the 
good of the neighbor, and have not denied self, taken 
up the cross, and followed the Divine Master — these, 
when they enter the other world, come more fully into 
the life and delights of self-love. And what are these ? 
The delights of fraud, hatred, revenge, adultery, blas- 
phemy, wickedness of every kind; — delights, indeed, to 
those whose ruling love is the love of self, but torment 



14 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and unmitigated misery when compared with the pure 
ecstatic delights of angelic love. Therefore these per- 
sons are represented as receiving the sentence, " Depart 
from me, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and 
his angels." 

The truth, then, summarily stated, is : that all life, 
from that of the highest angel in heaven down to that 
of the meanest creature here on earth, has its delights ; 
for life is love, and all love has its delights. The degree 
of happiness which each creature enjoys, depends upon 
the character of his delights ; and the character or ex- 
altation of his delights, depends on the nature or quality 
of. his love. And as far as the human transcends in dig- 
nity the bestial life — as far as man surpasses the brute in 
wisdom or in the extent and variety of his powers, so far 
has he the capacity of enjoyment above (yes, and of 
misery below) that of the brutes, and so far does the 
happiness of the angels exceed that of the devils. 

Is not this new view of hell in the highest degree ra- 
tional ? What can be more reasonable, (in view of the 
kind of life which infernal spirits have voluntarily made 
their own) than that they should be totally oblivious of 
their own condition ? — that they should be unable to see 
themselves or one another or the objects that surround 
them, as they really are ? — that everything should seem to 
them quite different from what it is, and from what it act- 
ually appears when viewed in the light of heaven ? — that 



THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 143 

they should remain forever ignorant of realities, and 
spend an eternity in the midst of shadows and phan- 
tasms? (See Arcana Ccelestia 4623.) 

And what unspeakable benignity in our Heavenly 
Father, does this doctrine display ! When his children 
have wandered far from the way of his commandments ; 
when they have shut their souls against the light of his 
wisdom and the purity of his love, and confirmed them- 
selves in a life of evil ; He loves them still — loves them 
too tenderly to permit them to see where and what they 
are. He loves them, and, for their own good, merci- 
fully provides that they remain forever oblivious of what 
they were created to be ; that they shall not be permitted 
to see themselves or each other as monsters, but as men ; 
that the loathsome objects which surround them, and 
which their own evil loves create by an unfailing law, 
shall not seem loathsome but pleasing to them ; that they 
shall still enjoy what they call delights — delights, too, as 
elevated as the kind of life they have formed for them- 
selves, will possibly admit of. 

Where shall we find a more striking display of the 
Lord's infinite and unspeakable mercy, than is presented 
in the wonderful provision He has made for the comfort 
and highest welfare of the devils? His love is, indeed, 
unfathomable. " His mercy is forever." Who can un- 
fold his marvelous loving-kindness? "Who can show 
forth all his praise?" 



H4 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are 
over all his works." 

" Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall 
I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, 
thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou 
art there." 

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. 

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them which despitefully use you and persecute you ; 

"That ye may be the children of your Father which 
is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 
the unjust." 



X. 

IS HELL TO UNDERGO ANY CHANGE? IF SO, 
OF WHAT NATURE? 

SWEDENBORG has disclosed with great clearness 
the condition of the wicked in the other world. 
Nor does he pretend to give us merely his opinion on the 
subject, but to set forth what he actually heard and saw 
when his spiritual senses were opened. He has told us 
what sort of people he found in hell, or of whom it con- 
sists. To cite his own language : 

" Hell consists of spirits who, while living in the 
world, denied God, acknowledged nature, lived contrary 
to divine order, loved evils and falsities (although not so 
much before the world on account of the appearance) 
and who, therefore, were either insane in regard to truths, 
or despised and denied them, if not with the mouth, yet 
in heart [and in their lives]. Of all such, who have 
lived from the creation of the world, hell consists.' ' — 
Athanasian Creed n. 41. 

The wickedness of the infernals is described as terrible 
— surpassing all belief. Speaking of their " malignity, 
cunning, fraud, deceit, and cruelty," he says: 

66 These are such and so great that, if they were told 

13 K 145 



I4 6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

only in part, scarcely an individual in the world would 
believe it. The infernals are so cunning and artful, and 
likewise so wicked — in short they are of such a cha- 
racter, that they cannot possibly be resisted by any man, 
nor even by any angel, but by the Lord alone " — A.C. 
6666. And speaking of those who have lived wicked 
lives on earth, and have interiorly denied the Divine, he 
says: "Such persons in the other life, when they come 
into the state of their interiors, and are heard to speak 
and seen to act, appear as if infatuated ; for from their 
evil lusts they break out into all manner of abomina- 
tions — into contempt of others, ridicule, blasphemy, 
hatred and revenge. They contrive plans of mischief, 
some of them with such cunning and malice, that it can 
scarcely be believed that anything of the kind could 
exist in any man." "They lay snares; they cherish 
hatred ; they burn with revenge, and seek to vent their 
rage against all who do not submit themselves to them. 
. . . At last they deliberate with themselves how they 
may climb up into heaven so as to destroy that, or be 
worshiped there as gods. To such lengths does their 
madness go. Those of this class who have been of the 
Roman Catholic religion, are more insane than the rest." 
" [When on earth] they desired to be worshiped as 
gods, and therefore burned with hatred and revenge 
against all who did not acknowledge their power over the 
souls of men and over heaven. They still cherished the 
same disposition which distinguished them in the world, 



ANY REFORMATION THERE? 147 

that is, the same hatred and revenge against those who 
oppose them. Their greatest delight is to exercise 
cruelty; but this delight is turned against themselves; 
for in their hells one rages like a madman against an- 
other who derogates from his divine power. ' ' And, as 
might be expected, " within their habitations, they are 
engaged in continual quarrels, enmities, blows and fight- 
ings, while in the streets and lanes of their cities are rob- 
beries and depredations " — Heaven and Hell 506, '8, 86. 

Such is the sad condition in the great Hereafter of 
those who, while on earth, have disregarded and tram- 
pled on the laws of their spiritual and heavenly life, and 
have thereby brought themselves into a state to love 
darkness rather than light, and evil rather than good. 
And the ruling love, we are told, can never be changed 
in the other world. 

Swedenborg has told us of various kinds of hells which 
he was permitted to inspect* — for no two of the infernal 
societies are precisely alike ; and their punishments are 

* In order that he might learn the actual state of things in hell, 
from his own personal observation, he says : " I was sometimes let 
down thither. To be let down into hell, is not to be translated from 
one place to another ; but it is an immission into some infernal so- 
ciety, while the person remains in the same place." On one of 
these occasions, he continues, " I clearly perceived that a kind of 
column, as it were, encompassed me, which became sensibly 
stronger ; and I perceived also that this was the wall of brass spoken 
of in the Word, formed of angelic spirits, in order that I might be 
let down in safety among the unhappy." — Arcana Ccelestia 699. 



I4<> NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

as various as their characters, but admirably adapted to 
their states and needs. Thus he speaks of " the hells of 
those who have spent their lives in hatred, revenge, and 
cruelty ;" of " the hells of those who have lived in adul- 
tery and lasciviousness;" of " the hells of the deceit- 
ful;" of "the hells of the covetous and of robbers;" of 
"the hells of those who have lived in merely carnal 
pleasures," etc. And while the ruling spirit and general 
features of them all are the same, each has its peculiar- 
ities. Without attempting any detail of these, I will 
quote one or two passages from his account of ' ' the hells 
of those who have passed their lives in adulteries and 
lasciviousness," and leave the reader to form his own 
judgment. 

"Those who find their chief delight in the spoils of 
virginity, having no regard to marriage or issue, and 
who, after compassing their lustful ends, conceive an 
aversion for their victims, and then leave them to prosti- 
tution, suffer the most grievous punishment in the other 
world. For their life is contrary to all order, natural, 
spiritual, and celestial. Not only is it contrary to con- 
jugial love, which in heaven is accounted most holy, but 
also to innocence, which they wound and destroy by se- 
ducing innocent beings into a course of prostitution, who 
might have been initiated into conjugial love ; for the 
first delights of love, as is well known, introduce virgins 
to chaste conjugial love, and conjoin the minds of mar- 
ried partners. And since the sanctity of heaven is 



ANY REFORMATION THERE? 149 

founded on conjugial love, and on innocence, the de- 
stroyers of such love must needs be murderers interiorly.' ' 

And after giving some account of the terrible punish- 
ment which this class of persons have to suffer in the 
other world, he continues : 

"This punishment returns many times for a hundred 
and a thousand years, until they become affected with 
horror at these lusts. I have been informed that the off- 
spring of such parents are worse than other children on 
account of their constitution, derived hereditarily from 
the father, partaking of his nature. Therefore children 
are seldom born from such connections ; or if they are, 
they do not remain long in this world." — A. C. 828. 

And what does he say of the innocent victims of these 
wicked persons, some of whom he met in the other 
world ? 

"There are young girls who have been enticed to 

prostitution, and persuaded that there was no evil in it, 

who in other respects were well disposed. These, not 

having yet attained to an age capable of knowing and 

judging correctly of the nature of this kind of life, have 

a certain instructor set over them in the other world, who 

is very severe, and chastises them whenever they give 

their thoughts to such wantonness, and of whom they are 

much afraid. In this way they become vastated." That 

is, they are carried through a certain reformatory course 

of discipline; and "when the time of vastation is over, 

they are taken up into heaven ; and being novitiates, 
13* 



ISO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

they are instructed in the truths of faith by the angels 
among whom they are received." — A. C. 1106, '13. 

But very different is it with another class of females 
whom he met in the spiritual world, and who were, when 
on earth, persons of most captivating manners, but de- 
ceitful, ambitious and destitute of conscience. 

" There are some of the female sex who have lived in 
the indulgence of their inclinations, regarding only 
themselves and the world, and making the sum total of 
life and its delights to consist in external decorum, in 
consequence of which they have been particularly es- 
teemed in polished society. They have thus, by prac- 
tice, acquired the power of insinuating themselves into 
the good graces of others by specious pretences and a 
fair exterior, for the purpose of gaining an ascendency 
over them. Hence their life has been one of simulation 
and deceit. They used to frequent churches like other 
people, but for no other purpose than to appear upright 
and pious ; being, moreover, destitute of conscience, 
and extremely prone to wickedness and adulteries when 
able to conceal them. Such persons in the other world 
think as they did here, not knowing what conscience is, 
and making a mock of those who speak of it. They 
enter into the affections of others by a pretended hon- 
esty, piety, compassion, and innocence, which with 
them are a means of deceiving ; and whenever external 
restraints are removed, they plunge into the most wicked 
and obscene practices. These are they who in the other 



ANY REFORMATION THERE? 151 

world become enchantresses or sorceresses, some of 
whom are denominated sirens, who become expert in 
arts unknown on earth.' 7 

Some of these arts are described. "They can assume 
the likeness of others" at will. By cunning artifice 
"they can inspire every one with an affection for them." 
"They have the power of representing to the view of 
spirits a bright flame encompassing the head, and this — 
which is an angelic token — to several at the same mo- 
ment. They can feign innocence by various methods, 
even by representing infants whom they kiss ; they also 
excite others whom they hate to murder them. . . . 
Their nature is so persuasive that no one suspects them ; 
and hence their ideas are not communicated like those 
of other spirits ; for they have eyes resembling those as- 
cribed to serpents, seeing every way at once, and having 
their thoughts present everywhere. 

" These sorceresses or sirens are punished grievously, 
some in Gehenna, others in a kind of court among ser- 
pents ; others by being, as it were, torn asunder and sub- 
jected to various collisions attended with intensest pain 
and torture." — Ibid. 831. 

And this, too, for their own good. For there is noth- 
ing of vindictiveness in the punishments of hell. They 
are all repressive, corrective and reformatory in their 
design and tendency. 

But will the hells remain forever as they were when 
Swedenborg saw them? Is th^^ ^ be n° ^h^ree — no 



I5 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

improvement — in their condition? If so, of what na- 
ture ? — and how is the improvement to be effected ? The 
answer to these questions has been already anticipated in 
a measure ; but I will endeavor to make it clearer and 
more definite. 

"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are 
over all his works/' He, therefore, has regard for, and 
continually endeavors to promote the best good even of 
the devils. He governs the hells as well as the heavens ; 
and his love and wisdom are as conspicuous and as 
active in the one realm as in the other. But the devils 
cannot be governed in the same way, or by the same 
methods, as the angels. The latter, because they love 
the Lord above all things, and their neighbor even better 
than themselves, can be led and governed by love — by 
the love of what is just and true and good. But the 
former, since they have no love of the Lord or their 
neighbor, but love themselves supremely, can be gov- 
erned only by fear. Self-love is perpetually encroaching 
upon the rights of others \ perpetually grasping at un- 
limited power; perpetually seeking, not to serve and 
bless others, but to subjugate them to its own control. 
It is, therefore, from its very nature, forever threatening 
the peace and welfare of the moral universe. And the 
only way this love can be restrained in its insane en- 
deavors, is through fear — the fear of punishment. 

The only way, therefore, that the Lord can reach the 
hells, and exert upon them a controlling influence, is 



ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 53 

through the medium of fear. It is in this way that He 
comes to, and manifests his love for, the devils. He does 
not hate them. He does not turn his face away from 
them. He does not take delight in tormenting them, as 
Christians have hitherto believed and taught ; — far from 
it. On the contrary his love for them is like that of a 
kind and benignant father for his disobedient children, 
only infinitely more tender. It is not less .strong for 
them, than it is for men on earth, or even for the angels 
in heaven ; — no, nor less active in its efforts to promote 
their highest welfare. But because they have quenched 
his holy Spirit in their hearts — because they have refused 
to listen to his loving voice, which evermore seeks to 
lead men freely in the path to heaven, therefore they 
must be governed like wayward and rebellious children. 
They cannot be governed as the angels are — by love ; 
they can only be governed by fear. Therefore the Lord 
permits them to be punished from time to time, with 
more or less severity according to the stubbornness of 
"their dispositions or the measure of their perversity. 
And this, too, for their own good ; precisely as a wise 
and loving father will chastise his disobedient children, 
not because he delights in causing them pain, but because 
he wishes, for their good, to subdue their rebellious dis- 
positions, and prevent them from injuring themselves and 
others through the unrestrained indulgence of their 
wrong inclinations. 

It is precisely in this way that the Lord deals with the 



154 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

evil spirits in hell — his disobedient and rebellious chil- 
dren. He permits them to suffer punishment from time 
to time, but never without an end of use ; — never, but 
for their own or others' good. As Swedenborg says : 
"The Lord turns all punishment and torment [in the 
other life] to some good use. It would be impossible 
that there should be any such thing as punishment, un- 
less use were the end aimed at by the Lord ; for the 
Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends and uses." {Ar- 
cana Ccelestia 696.) 

And this is the use intended by punishment in the 
hells, and the use which it actually accomplishes : It 
excites fear and dread by the pain it produces ; and thus 
the devils are constrained, through fear of punishment, 
to moderate their insanities, and restrain in some meas- 
ure their evil inclinations. And although the lust of 
doing evil forever remains, yet the condition of the 
devils is rendered vastly more tolerable when they have 
been reduced to a state in which they dare not do the 
evil to which they are inclined ; and are kept in this 
state through fear of punishment. 

Under a government of fear and force, therefore — the 
only kind of government suited to the states of the in- 
fernals — and through the instrumentality of punishments 
administered by divine permission, a change in the con- 
dition of the hells is perpetually going on, though not 
such an internal reformation as will result in obliterating 



ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 55 

their existence, or in finally converting the devils into 
angels. Swedenborg says : 

"All the inhabitants of hell are governed by fears \ 
some, by fears implanted in the world, which still retain 
their influence ; but because these fears are not sufficient, 
and likewise lose their force by degrees, they are gov- 
erned by fear of punishment ; and this fear is the princi- 
pal means of deterring them from doing evil. The 
punishments in hell are various, more mild or more 
severe according to the nature of the evils to be re- 
strained. For the most part the more malignant who 
excel in cunning and artifice, and are able to keep the 
rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments 
and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others ; 
but these governors dare not go beyond the limits pre- 
scribed to them. It is to be observed that the fear of 
punishment is the only means of restraining the violence 
and fury of the hells : there is no other." — Heaven and 
Hell 543. 

"They who have not in the world acknowledged the 
Lord, and that all good and truth are from Him and 
nothing from man, cannot resist evils as of themselves 
after death; for they are in evils and in the delight 
thereof grounded in love \ and to resist the delight of 
their love, is to resist themselves, their own nature and 
their own life. On one occasion the experiment was 
made whether they were able to resist evils while the 
punishments of hell were announced to them, yea, while 



156 NEW VIEW OF BELL. 

they were seen and likewise felt ; but it was in vain, for 
they hardened their minds, saying, let come what will, 
provided only that we are in the delight and joy of our 
hearts while we are here. We shall not suffer more evil 
than many others. But after a stated time they are cast 
into hell, where they are compelled by punishments not 
to do evil ; but punishments do not take away the 
will, the purpose, and consequent thought of evil; 
they only prevent the evil act." — Apocalypse Explained 
n. 1165. 

" While man lives in the world, he is kept continually 
in a state capable of being reformed, provided he desists 
from evil from a free principle. But his life follows him 
after death, and he remains in the state which he had 
procured to himself by the whole course of his life in the 
world. Then he who was in evil, is no longer capable 
of being reformed ; and lest he should have communica- 
tion with any society of heaven, all truth and good are 
taken away from him, in consequence of which he re- 
mains in the evil and false, which principles increase ac- 
cording to the faculty of receiving them which he has 
acquired in the world ; but he is not permitted to pass 
beyond the acquired bounds. . . . His state then is such 
that he cannot any longer be amended as to his interiors, 
but only as to his exteriors ; and this by fear of punish- 
ments, which, being often repeated, compel the spirit at 
last to abstain from evil, which he does, not in freedom 
but through compulsion, the lust of doing evil still re- 



A NY RE FOR MA TION THERE ? 157 

maining ; this lust is held in check by fears, as was said, 
which fears are the external and compulsory means of 
amendment. Such is the state of the evil in the other 
life." — Arcana Ccelestia 6977. 

" Every evil spirit in the other life brings punishment 
and torment on himself, by casting himself into the 
midst of the diabolical crew who act as the executioners. 
The Lord never sends any one into hell, but desires to 
bring all out of hell ; still less does He inflict torment. 
But as the evil spirit rushes into it himself, the Lord 
turns all punishment and torment to some good account. 
There would be no such thing as punishment if use were 
not the end aimed at by the Lord ; for his kingdom is a 
kingdom of ends and uses ; but the uses which infernal 
spirits are able to perform are most ignoble ; yet when 
they are engaged in the performance of these uses, they 
are not in a state of so great misery [as at other times]. " 
—Ibid. 696. 

" Man in the other life enters into new states and un- 
dergoes changes. They who are being elevated into 
heaven, and afterwards when they have been elevated, 
advance forever towards perfection. But they who are 
being cast into hell, and afterwards when they have been 
cast in, endure sufferings more and more grievous, which 
are continued until they dare not do evil to any one. 
And afterwards they remain in hell to eternity. They 
cannot be drawn out, because they cannot be gifted with 
the ability to do good to any one, only not to do evi/fvom 

14 



/ 



158 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

fear of punishment, the lust of doing it always remaining." 
—Ibid. 7541. 

Such, then, is the nature of the change that is going on 
in the hells, and such the means by which it is accom- 
plished. And even in the punishments which are there 
inflicted, we have a manifestation of the Divine benevo- 
lence. For the purpose of these is, the amelioration of 
the condition of the devils ; — an end altogether worthy 
of infinite Love, but one which infinite Wisdom sees 
could not be attained without the instrumentality of pun- 
ishment. To withhold the exercise of this instrumental- 
ity, therefore, would not be an act of benevolence, and 
hence not agreeable to infinite Love ; for this Love for- 
ever regards the end to be accomplished, and wisely per- 
mits temporary suffering as a means toward the attain- 
ment of that end. 

Through the instrumentality of punishments, therefore, 
severe and oft-repeated, the hells are undergoing an im- 
provement not unlike that which goes on in a well gov- 
erned penitentiary here on earth. They are being re- 
formed outwardly, but not inwardly; — not as to their 
spirit or ruling purpose, for no internal reformation is 
ever effected by punishment or the fear of it. All that 
punishment can ever do, is to intimidate and restrain, 
and so prevent the actual commission of evil deeds, the 
disposition to commit them still remaining. 

By means of a strong police and severe punishments, a 
community of thieves and murderers may be restrained, 



ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 59 

and kept in some degree of external order \ but theft and 
murder (or the spirit that prompts them) still remain in 
their hearts ; and will break forth into outward act as 
soon as the police are out of the way, or there is no 
longer any fear of punishment. You cannot drive love — 
pure, unselfish love — into human hearts with bullets or 
bludgeons, by infantry or artillery, by cavalry or police. 

Our state prisons furnish a good illustration of the 
hells as described by Swedenborg \ and the external im- 
provement which has been going on in many of these for 
the last thirty years, through a wise administration and a 
firm government, will give us some idea of the nature 
and extent of the improvement that is going on in the 
hells. And while this is not such as will result in finally 
changing their essential character or ruling love, let us 
hope that it may, however, be carried so far as to render 
the condition of the devils quite tolerable if not happy. 
Let us hope that, ultimately, they may be reduced to 
such a state of external order, that life — even the low 
and selfish kind of life which they have chosen and 
made their own — will be esteemed by them a blessing 
and not a curse. 

In a community here on earth, where a great majority 
of the people have a conscience and are actuated by 
principle, the sphere of law and order, of justice and 
right, is usually so strong that there is rarely any out- 
break of the hells through the minority. These latter 
are kept in subjection and order by purely selfish and 



160 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

prudential considerations — from an enlightened regard 
to their own temporal interests, or through fear of dis- 
grace, punishment, or worldly loss of some sort. So from 
like considerations, and under the rigid discipline to 
which the devils are subjected and which I have here 
hastily outlined, the universal hell may ultimately be 
brought into such complete subjection to the angelic 
heaven, (whose numbers and influence, it is believed, are 
continually increasing), that the violent commotions and 
outbreaks which are now so frequent, will entirely cease. 
When this takes place, we can easily see that, although 
the hells will still remain unchanged as to their essential 
nature, they will be like the tamed tiger — submissive, 
and therefore harmless. We can see, too, that, by their 
subjection to the heaven of angels, or to the emanating 
and controlling sphere of law and order, their own peace 
and comfort will be increased, and the welfare of the 
moral universe promoted to an extent beyond the power 
of imagination to conceive. 

Such is a brief outline of the New Doctrine of Hell ; 
— a doctrine which builds itself impregnably upon the 
constitution and laws of the human soul, which accords 
with the teaching of sound philosophy, with the dictates 
of reason, with the facts of history, with the record of 
human experience, and with the teachings of Scripture 
rationally and spiritually interpreted. 

How different this doctrine is from the one taught in 



ANY REFORMA TION THERE ? 1 6 1 

the literal sense of the Word, and generally accepted 
among Christians a hundred years ago ! It presents us 
not with an angry and vindictive God delighting in the 
sufferings of his disobedient children, but with a tender 
and loving Father pitying their infirmities, and pursuing 
them with outstretched arms of mercy through all their 
wanderings, and even into the lowest depths of degrada- 
tion and sin. And if, in the exercise of the freedom 
vouchsafed to every human being, they choose to unfold 
only the lower or sensuous part of their nature — choose 
to make their bed in hell, behold the loving Father is 
there, restraining, correcting, controlling and governing 
them in the manner best suited to their condition and 
needs ; chastising them for their own good, and granting 
them the enjoyment of such delights as belong to the 
life which they have developed within them and made 
their own ; mercifully closing their minds against the 
light of heaven, that they may not see where and what 
they really are ; providing for each and all a home in 
the society of congenial spirits — a home which their 
nature impels them to seek, and to which they go as freely 
and as willingly as the inebriate goes to the gin-shop or 
the leopard to his lair. 

And the practical tendency of this doctrine, like that 
of every other that is true, is most salutary. While it 
proclaims the infinite love and mercy of God, and his 
ceaseless desire and effort to save all, it at the same time 
shows us that salvation is a work which not even almighty 

14* L 



1 62 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

Love itself can accomplish without our willing co-opera- 
tion ; that the heavenly life cannot be forced upon us nor 
into us by almighty power, but can only be wrought out 
by our own volition — or built up through struggle and 
conflict and self-denial and obedience to the laws of that 
life, — the Lord meanwhile " working in us to will and to 
do of his good pleasure" ; and that unless we begin to 
live the life of heaven here on earth — begin to deny 
self, take up the cross and follow the Master — we shall 
have no desire to engage in this work in the realm be- 
yond the grave. The heaven of our minds will then be 
closed in tender compassion for us \ and the peace and 
joy and unutterable bliss of heaven will, therefore, never 
be ours. 

So tremendous are the moral sanctions with which 
this new doctrine is invested ! So benign and quicken- 
ing is it in its practical tendency ! 



XI. 

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 

TV TO treatise upon the subject that has thus far en- 
-^ ^ gaged our attention, would be satisfactory to an 
inquiring mind, which did not embrace an explanation 
of the terms Devil and Satan. These words occur very 
often in the New Testament, and in the closest possible 
connection with the term Hell. What is Swedenborg's 
explanation of them ? Or what is the doctrine revealed 
through him concerning the Devil and Satan ? 

We know what doctrine had been generally taught and 
accepted by Christians up to the time he wrote. It was 
that of a personal Devil — an individual of unparalleled 
malignity, the implacable enemy of both God and man, 
and endued with little less than omnipotent power. And 
this idea agrees with the literal teaching of the Bible. 
It also appears from the literal sense of some passages 
(and this, too, has been the accepted doctrine among 
Christians) as if this almost omnipotent evil spirit, was 
once an inhabitant of the highest heaven — foremost 
among the heavenly host in wisdom and all angelic 
graces ; — one 

163 



164 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

" who, in the happy realms of light, 



Clothed with transcendent brightness, did outshine 
Myriads though bright ;" — 

but who, on account of his impious attempt to overthrow 
the divine government and establish himself on the 
throne of the universe, was cast down from heaven, and 
became thereby the prince of the bottomless pit, the 
commander in chief of all the hosts of hell. (See Is. 
xii. 14; Jude 6th v. ; Rev. ix. 11.) 

Such was the generally accepted doctrine of the Devil 
a hundred years ago. And it is believed by many at the 
present day. A high authority where definitions are in 
question (Noah Webster), defines Satan to be " the grand 
adversary of man ; the devil, or prince of darkness ; the 
chief of the fallen angels; the arch-fiend." And in an 
abridgement of his great work, we find Devil defined 
thus: — "In -the Christian theology — a fallen angel ex- 
pelled from heaven for rebellion against God \ the chief 
of the fallen angels." 

From these definitions we learn that the notion which 
Christians have generally attached to these words, has 
been precisely that expressed by Milton in his great epic, 
where he introduces Satan as one 

" cast out from heaven, with all his host 



Of rebel angels ; by whose aid aspiring 
To set himself in glory above his peers, 
He trusted to have equaled the Most High 
If He opposed ; and with ambitious aim 



THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 1 65 

Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms." 

But there are not a few at the present day, both within 
and outside of all the churches — and their number is 
steadily increasing — who do not believe a word of this 
old and once popular doctrine of the Devil. They 
reject that whole story about the war in heaven, and the 
overthrow and expulsion of the rebel hosts, as fabulous. 
And if any one is curious to know the origin of this no- 
tion about the " fallen angels/' let him read attentively 
the critical remarks of Dr. Moses Stuart on the Apochry- 
phal book of Enoch, from which it is evident that the 
apostle Jude quoted. The conclusion of this learned 
writer is briefly stated thus: "Probable I must deem it 
to be, that Jude has quoted the book of Enoch ; because 
he seems, in what he says of the angels who kept not 
their first estate, but left their habitation and are reserved 
in chains of darkness, to allude to the account of apos- 
tate angels as given in the book of Enoch." {Stuart on 
the Apocalypse, Vol. I., p. 51-73.) 

The old doctrine on this subject, then, is clearly one 
that belongs to a superstitious and unenlightened age. 



1 66 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

It bears about it the air of fable. Our reason and the 
enlightened sentiment of the present day repudiate it 
utterly. 

Let us turn, now, to the new doctrine revealed through 
Swedenborg ; and see if that be as unreasonable or im- 
probable as the old. What, according to this new rev- 
elation, is the Devil and Satan of Scripture ? 

Consider that evil spirits are not all in the same kind 
or degree of evil. They are not all alike, any more than 
men on earth or angels in heaven. There are innumerable 
varieties of evil in hell, as there are of good in heaven. 
And those who are in similar kinds and degrees of evil, 
prefer to be together. They are therefore drawn by the 
law of spiritual affinity into the same society. Every 
devil is carried to that particular society whose general 
character most nearly resembles his own. There he 
finds himself at home. He is drawn to it by an irre- 
sistible attraction — for in the other world each one goes 
where his ruling love leads him. Spirits can no more 
resist or cut themselves loose from the law of spiritual 
attraction, than our earth can resist or cut itself loose 
from the law of material attraction. 

By virtue of this law, and of the endless variety of 
goods and evils in the other world, both in kind and in 
degree, there are in heaven and in hell a countless num- 
ber of societies, each one of which is in some specific 
kind and degree of good or evil. All the societies in 
heaven, viewed collectively, constitute one gigantic Man 



THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 167 

or Angel ; and are often called by Swedenborg Maximus 
Homo — the Grand Man. The meaning of this is, that 
the connection, interdependence, and mutual relation 
of the innumerable societies composing the whole angelic 
heaven, and the uses which they severally perform, cor- 
respond to the harmonious relation existing between the 
different organs of the human body, and their respective 
functions. 

And since the mutual relation and dependence of all 
the angelic societies is such that the whole heaven appears 
before the Lord as one symmetrical and colossal Man or 
Angel, so the infernal societies are so related and united 
that all hell appears as one gigantic and deformed Mon- 
ster or Devil. The difference in their appearance cor- 
responds exactly to the difference in their character. 
And this is as the difference between a single angel and 
devil, one of whom is a form of all that is pure and 
good, and therefore indescribably beautiful ; the other a 
form of all that is evil and loathsome, and therefore 
hideous. 

This, according to Swedenborg, is what we are to un- 
derstand by the Devil and Satan so often mentioned in 
Scripture. Each of these is a collective term when used 
in its widest sense, and denotes all the infernal societies 
viewed as a single individual. There is an organic con- 
nection among infernal spirits. One life pervades them 
all, and that is the life of self-love and the lusts therein 
originating, — just as one kind of blood, pure or impure, 



l6S NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

courses through all parts of the human body even to its 
remotest extremities. And as the whole body conspires 
in producing the slightest motion of any limb — a foot, 
an arm, a hand or a finger — so all hell conspires in the 
perpetration of every wicked deed — in every evil pur- 
pose, word, or work. 

We see, then, that, according to the New doctrine, no 
single individual as chief of the fallen angels, is meant 
by these Scripture terms, but all evil spirits in the com- 
plex, — or some one of the infernal societies with whose 
every act and purpose the whole conspires. Devil is the 
term employed when hell is spoken of with more especial 
reference to the evil loves that reign there : and Satan, 
when it is spoken of with more especial reference to its 

e persuasions. 

ad because all hell is in a state of opposition to what 
is good and true, and perpetually conspires to destroy 
man spiritually, by the sphere of evil and falsity which 
continually issues from it as a poisonous exhalation, 
therefore we read that the Devil M was a murderer from 
the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there 
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh 
of his own [i. e., according to his own nature]; for he 
is a liar and the father of it." :hing but falsity is in 

agreement with evil. Therefore nothing but lies can 
come forth from the hearts of those who are essentially 
evil — supremely selfish — when they speak from their own 
nature. 



THE DEVIL A. 169 

So reasonable is the view here presented, and so much 
more satisfactory than the Old doctrine, that we are not 
surprised to find it beginning to be accepted by some of 
the acutest minds and profoundest thinkers even among 
those commonly reputed orthodox. To cite here, by 
way of illustration, a single passage from that most fas- 
cinating work. JTature and the Supernatural, from the 
pen of Dr. Horace Bushnell, unquestionably one of the 
ablest theologians in America. Speaking of the doctrine 
of the Manichees or disciples of Zoroaster, this writer 

M If their good principle, called God by us, is taken 
as a being, and their bad principle as only a condition 
privative ; one as a positive and real cause, the other as a 
bad possibility that environs God from eternity, waiting 
to become a fact and certain to become a fact when 
the opportunity en, it is even so. And then it fol- 

that the moment God creates a realm of powers, the 
bad possibility as certainly becomes a bad acruali: 
Satan, or Devil, in esse ; not a bad omnipresence over 
against God, and his equal — that is a monstrous and hor- 
rible conception — but an outbreaking evil or empire of 
evil in created spirits, according to their order. For 
Satan, or the I 7 taken in the singular, is not the 
name of any particular person, neither is it a personation 
merely of temptation, or impersonal evil, as many in- 
fer there is really no such thing as impersonal 
in the sense of moral evil : but the name is a name thai 

15 



1 7° NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

generalizes bad persons or spirits, with their bad thoughts 
or characters, many in one. That there is any single 
one of them who, by distinction or pre-eminence, is called 
Satan, or Devil, is wholly improbable. The name is one 
taken up by the imagination, to designate or embody, in 
a conception the mind can most easily wield, the all or 
total of bad minds or powers.' ' — pp. 134, '5. 

I do not know whether this learned writer derived the 
view here expressed from Swedenborg, or whether he 
reached it by a kind of spiritual intuition. In either 
case the testimony of such a mind is equally valuable. 
The doctrine, we see, is identically the same as that 
revealed through Swedenborg. 

Pursuing our inquiry, — we find that the word AngeZ is 
used in Scripture in a manner similar to the word Devil, 
as explained by Swedenborg. Sometimes it is used to 
denote a single individual, sometimes a single angeric 
society, and sometimes the whole angelic heaven which 
is an angel in the largest form. Thus the seer of Pat- 
mos speaks of the angels of the churches of Ephesus, 
Smyrna, Thyatira, etc., by which are meant the angelic 
societies connected with and presiding over these churches. 
We read also in Psalms: "The angel of the Lord 
encampeth round about them that fear Him, and deliv- 
ered! them." Here "the angel of the Lord" means 
the whole angelic heaven. 

But heaven is the same in each and all of its parts, as 
it is in the whole. Therefore the word angel, which is 



THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 171 

sometimes used in Scripture to denote the whole angelic 
heaven, or some society thereof, is also used in the plural 
{angels) to denote two or more individuals ; for e very- 
angel is a heaven in the smallest form. 

Similar remarks may be made with reference to the 
use of the word devil. It is used in the singular as a col- 
lective term to denote all hell in the complex; and 
again we find the same word often used in the plural 
(devils), denoting individual evil spirits, or the constit- 
uent parts of hell, which are similar in character to the 
whole. 

We use the term man in precisely the same way. We 
sometimes apply it to a single individual, and sometimes 
to the race. It is often used in this latter sense in the 
Bible, as a collective term. As where it is said : " God 
made man in his own image." "Man shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of 
the mouth of God shall man li¥e. M Again we use this 
word in the plural (ineti), when speaking of a number of 
individuals, or of mankind in general. 

And what is more common than to hear a country, 
a kingdom, or state, or other community of persons 
spoken of as a single individual. Every one speaks of 
England, France, Germany, the United States, etc., or 
the people of these countries viewed collectively, as one 
person, with the same familiarity and the same confi- 
dence of being understood, as he would speak of Mr. 
Smith or Mr. Jones, his next door neighbor. 



172 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

Now if Man is often used as a collective term to denote 
the entire human race, and Angel in like manner to de- 
note the whole angelic heaven, why should not Devil 
be used in the same way to denote all evil spirits in the 
complex? or, as Dr. Bushnell expresses it, "the total 
of bad minds"? These are all animated by one and 
the same bad spirit; they all breathe hatred, cruelty, 
revenge and murder ; they are all joined in an alliance 
of evil; they all conspire to work deeds of darkness; 
and viewed collectively, what are they but one inhuman 
Monster or Devil ? 

And this view has the clear testimony of Scripture as 
well as of reason in its support. For we read of one 
"that was possessed with the devil/' who was "always, 
night and day, in the mountains and in the tombs, 
crying and cutting himself with stones." This poor, 
devil-possessed creature met Jesus as He came out of the 
ship ; and as soon as he saw Him " he ran and worshiped 
Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have 
I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high 
God?" And Jesus, commanding the unclean spirit to 
come out of the man, "asked him, What is thy name? 
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion ; for we 
are many." — Mark v. 9. And immediately after, this 
same unclean spirit, called in verses 15 and 16 "the 
devil," is spoken of in the plural as "the unclean spirits." 
and "all the devils." 

There are a number of other names by which the Devil 



THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 173 

is called in Scripture, each of which expresses something 
of the essential nature of hell ; such as, Angel of the 
bottomless pit, Prince of this world, Prince of darkness, 
Destroyer, Beelzebub, Belial, Adversary, Accuser, De- 
ceiver, Liar, Murderer, Tormentor, Serpent, Lucifer, 
Leviathan and Dragon. Such are the significant names 
which we find in the Bible sometimes applied to the col- 
lective body of evil spirits in the other world, who, 
viewed as one individual, are more frequently called the 
Devil and Satan. And how completely do such names 
justify the following language of Swedenborg : 

"As heaven, from the Lord, by mutual love, consti- 
tutes as it were one Man or one soul, and thus regards 
one end which is the preservation and salvation of all to 
eternity ; so on the other hand hell, from proprium, by 
self-love and the love of the world, that is, by hatred, 
constitutes one Devil or one mind, and thus regards one 
end, which is the destruction and damnation of all to 
eternity. That such is the tendency of each has been 
granted me to perceive many thousands of times.' ' 
{Arcana Ccelestia 694.) 

We thus see that the New doctrine on this, as on other 
subjects, is quite different from the Old. The Devil, 
according to Swedenborg 7 s disclosures, is not the per- 
sonal one described by Milton, and hitherto believed in 
by Christians generally. Nor is he a fabulous or imag- 
inary being, but one whose existence and reality the 

philosphic inquirer readily admits. Nay, he is one 
15 * 



1 74 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

whose existence we are compelled to admit, the moment 
we admit that each one takes his own character with him 
into the other world, and that those of similar character 
are there drawn together, and held together and act to- 
gether as one. 

And something — nay, much, I think — is gained, when 
the Devil, whom intelligent people were fast coming to 
look upon as a fabulous sort of being, is so presented 
that all doubt about his existence and reality as well as 
his nature, is banished. It places the Scripture in a dif- 
ferent light, and inspires fresh confidence in its divinity. 

And seeing what the essential nature of the Devil is, 
we may see what it is to be influenced and led by him — 
and what to be led by the Lord. When we earnestly strive 
to know and do the right — when we look to the Lord 
and seek to regulate our lives according to his revealed 
will, then we suffer ourselves to be led and governed by 
Him. 

But when we seek only to do our own wills — when we 
heed the promptings of self-love more than the still small 
voice of truth and duty, then we breathe the atmosphere 
of hell ; our spirits act in conjunction with the infernals ; 
we are led and governed by the Devil. 

And when we consider what legions there are who con- 
stitute the Devil, and who are banded together in a con- 
spiracy against all that is good and true and holy in 
human hearts and human society, how clear and imper- 
ative becomes the need of an almighty Arm to save us ! 



THE DEVIL AND SATAX. 1 75 

and how earnestly should we seek the Divine protecting 
sphere ! How anxious should we be to know the truth, 
and how careful to govern our lives according to its 
requirements — ever acknowledging the Lord's own im- 
mediate presence and power in the truths we learn and 
do ! This is the only way we can secure for ourselves the 
protection of that Arm which alone can shield us against 
the power of hell. 

How imminent is our spiritual danger, how watchful 
we ought to be over our hearts and lives, how much we 
need the Divine protection, and how that protection is 
best ensured, will appear from the following extract from 
Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell : 

" Every spirit is his own good or his own evil, because 
he is his own love. Therefore, as an angelic spirit 
thinks, wills, speaks, and acts from his own good, so 
does an infernal spirit from his own evil ; and to think, 
will, speak, and act, from evil itself, is to do so from all 
the things which are included in the evil. It was other- 
wise when he lived in the body. The evil of the man's 
spirit was then restrained by the bonds, in which every 
one is held by the law, by his love of gain and honor, 
and through fear of losing them ; on which account the 
evil of his spirit could not then break out, and manifest 
itself in its own intrinsic nature. Besides, the evil of 
the man's spirit then lay wrapped up and veiled in exter- 
nal probity, sincerity, justice, and the affection of truth 
and good, of which such a man has made an oral profes- 



176 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

sion, and has assumed an appearance for the sake of the 
world. Under these outward semblances, the evil lay so 
covered up and concealed, that he was scarcely aware 
himself that his spirit contained so great wickedness and 
subtlety, or that in himself he was such a devil as he 
becomes after death, when his spirit comes into itself, 
and into its own nature. Such wickedness then manifests 
itself as exceeds all belief. There are thousands of evils 
which burst forth from evil itself, among which, also, 
are such as cannot be expressed in the words of any lan- 
guage. I have been permitted to learn and comprehend 
their nature by much experience ; for it has been granted 
me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world as to my 
spirit, and at the same time in the natural world as to 
my body. This I can testify, that their wickedness is so 
great, that it is hardly possible to describe a thousandth 
part of it; and furthermore, that unless the Lord pro- 
tected man, it would be impossible for him ever to be 
rescued from hell; for there are with every man both 
spirits from hell and angels from heaven ; and the Lord 
cannot protect a man, unless he acknowledge the Divine, 
and live the life of faith and charity ; for otherwise, he 
averts himself from the Lord, and turns toward infernal 
spirits, and thus becomes imbued as to his spirit with 
similar wickedness. " — 577. 



XII. 

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF THE QUESTION. 

BESIDES this outer world of matter, there is another 
realm of being ; — a world of spirits, both good and 
evil ; — a heaven of angels and a hell of devils. Nor is 
this realm remote from the world in which we are now 
living and acting, but intimately present with it, inter- 
penetrating every part of it, as the soul of man pervades 
and animates every part of his body. 

In the midst of this viewless host our own souls live 
and breathe and act. With one or another class of 
spirits we internally hold close companionship; and are 
powerfully influenced by them for good or for evil. 
Neither heaven nor hell are far-away, but present and 
potential realities— none the less so because their deni- 
zens are invisible to the natural eye. And the moment 
this fact is recognized, the important practical bearings 
of the subject discussed in these pages, becomes apparent. 
For if hell be a present reality, or if it can come near to 
men and exert upon them a potent influence, it is import- 
ant that we understand its nature. 

And all who accept the Sacred Scripture as a revelation 

from God, must recognize this fact. For on almost 

M 177 



lj% NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

every page of the Bible, the existence of a realm above 
nature — of a world peopled by spirits, good and evil — is 
clearly implied if not distinctly asserted. Angels and 
devils are spoken of as often, and with as much familiar- 
ity, as are any other objects whose reality no one ever 
dreamed of questioning. Their existence is everywhere 
assumed. There is never an attempt to prove it, any 
more than there is to prove the existence of the sun, 
moon or stars. 

Angels are spoken of as often seen by persons in the 
flesh ; as conversing with and sustaining an intimate re- 
lation to them ; as feeling a lively interest in humanity, 
and exerting an influence upon the condition of mortals. 
They were seen, for example, by Jacob, Gideon, Manoah, 
Zacharias, the shepherds of Bethlehem, and the women 
"who were early at the sepulchre.' ' Myriads of them 
were beheld, and their voices heard, by John when he 
was in the spirit. And as evidence of their interest in 
and their sympathy with people here on earth, we are 
told in the gospel of Luke that " there is joy in the pres- 
ence of the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
penteth." 

Equally explicit, too, is the Scripture in its teaching 
respecting evil spirits or devils, and their malign influ- 
ence upon the inhabitants of this world. When our 
Saviour was on earth, multitudes were possessed by them ; 
and we are told that "He cast out the devils with his 
word." He also gave his disciples " power over unclean 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 179 

spirits to cast them out." And when He sent them forth 
to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, He gave them a 
commission to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise 
the dead, and cast out devils" When the evil spirits 
saw Him, they (or the persons possessed by them) cried 
out for fear, fell down before Him, or quickly fled away 
as from one whose sphere was insufferably painful. And 
"with authority,' ' it is said, "He commandeth the un- 
clean spirits, and they obey Him. ,, And on one occa- 
sion when He was met by a poor demoniac who had his 
dwelling among the tombs, "He said unto him, Come 
out of the man, thou unclean spirit." And when he was 
asked "What is thy name?" he answered "My name is 
Legion ; for we are many. ' ' 

Then look at the character of the Devil as portrayed 
in the Bible ; — and this term, as shown in the previous 
chapter, is applied to the congregated hosts of hell, or 
all evil spirits viewed collectively. His character is 
clearly indicated by the several names applied to him. 
For he is called a liar, a destroyer, the accurser of the 
brethren, the adversary, the deceiver, a murderer, the 
old serpent, the tempter, the wicked one, the spirit that 
worketh in the children of disobedience. He is repre- 
sented, moreover, as the enemy of God and the human 
race; as opposed to the establishment of the Redeemer's 
kingdom, or to the reign of justice, liberty and love in 
human hearts; as earnestly bent on man's destruction; 
as the inspirer of all wicked thoughts, and malign pur- 



l8o NEW VIEW OE HELL. 

poses ; as putting it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to 
betray the blessed Saviour; as corrupting and misleading 
men by craft and subtlety; as "going about like a roar- 
ing lion, seeking whom he may devour." 

The Scripture testimony on this subject is abundant 
and conclusive. We see not how it could be more ex- 
plicit. If the existence of an innumerable company of 
angels and devils, their close proximity to man, and their 
intense desire and earnest effort, the one class to do him 
good and the other to do him harm, be not plainly taught 
in the Bible, then it would be difficult, I think, to say 
what is plainly taught there. 

And yet the explicit teaching of Scripture on this mo- 
mentous theme, has come to be quite overlooked or 
ignored by many Christians ; and so explained by others 
as to cast doubt on the very existence of spirits, good or 
evil. These facts go to show how important it was that 
some one should be intromitted into the spiritual world 
in the manner that Swedenborg was (or, if you please, 
claimed to be), that he might thereby be enabled to make 
a truthful revelation concerning that world. 

That the practical bearings of the question discussed 
in these pages, may be more distinctly seen, I will give 
a brief outline of the spiritual world, even at the risk of 
treading upon some ground that has already been trav- 
eled over. 

I observe, then, that the spiritual world is one of sub- 
stantial realities — more real, indeed, than the one in 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 181 

which we are now living. It is not remote from this 
world as to space, but is intimately present with it as the 
soul is with the body. It is peopled by a countless 
multitude of beings, all of whom are in the human form 
and were once inhabitants of the natural world. These 
are organized in general into two grand divisions, — a 
heaven of angels and a hell of devils. The angels are 
distributed into innumerable societies, corresponding, in 
their mutual relations and in the functions they respect- 
ively perform, to the different members and organs of 
the human body ; so that together they constitute one 
Grand Man or Angel. And to the Lord they actually 
appear as one, and constitute his heavenly kingdom. 
These are spoken of in the Bible as " the angel of the 
Lord" and " the host of heaven." 

And the angels are all good and wise, although there 
is a wide diversity of character among them. Some are 
in a high and others in a comparatively low degree of 
wisdom j some in one kind of good, others in another. 
But love to the Lord and the neighbor is the chief in- 
spiration — yea, the very life-blood of all their hearts. 
They are all, to some extent, images and likenesses of 
the Lord. They have been with Him and learned of 
Him ; — learned to be meek and lowly in heart, forgetful 
of themselves and thoughtful only of the good of 
others ; — learned to do justly, to love mercy, and to 
walk humbly with their God. These constitute that 
bright angelic throng, of whom it is said that they 

16 



*82 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

"came out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb/' 
They are all of them children of the Heavenly Father, 
having their hearts stamped indelibly with the impress 
of his spirit — which is what is meant by their having 
" his name written in their foreheads/' Their love is like 
God's, pure and unselfish. They love each other even 
better than themselves, and find their chief delight in 
doing good and communicating happiness to others. 
Having in their hearts the very spirit of the Lord, they 
love only what He loves, and delight to do only those 
things that He delights to have them do. Their rul- 
ing desire and purpose are the same as his ; their ends 
and aims the same. For they desire above all else to 
impart unto others the delights of heavenly life. They 
desire to dissipate the spiritual darkness, to heal the 
spiritual sickness, to restore the spiritual health and renew 
the spiritual strength of the world. Swedenborg's writ- 
ings are full of the most beautiful and inspiring pictures 
of angelic life, from which people here on earth may 
learn lessons of the highest practical wisdom. Thus he 
says : 

" The angelic life consists in the performance of uses, 
or in the goods of charity. For to the angels nothing 
is more delightful than to instruct spirits coming from 
the world ; — to serve mankind by inspiring them with 
what is good, and by restraining the evil spirits attend- 
ant on them from passing their proper bounds ; — to raise 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. I S3 

up the dead to eternal life, and afterwards, if their souls 
be of such a character as to render it possible, to intro- 
duce them into heaven. In the performance of these 
offices they experience an unspeakable delight. Thus 
they are images of the Lord, for they love their neighbor 
more than themselves ; and where this feeling exists, 
there is heaven. Angelic happiness, therefore, is in use, 
from use, and according to use ; or in other words, it is 
according to the goods of love and charity. . . . 

" Some of the best educated [who were met with in the 
other world], declared heavenly joy to consist in a life 
separated from the good offices of charity and in merely 
praising and worshiping the Lord, — calling this an active 
life. They w r ere told, however, that praising and wor- 
shiping the Lord, is not such an active life, but the 
effect of such life ; for the Lord has no need of men's 
praises, but desires that they perform the good works of 
charity. According as they do these, they receive hap- 
piness from the Lord. Yet these most learned spirits 
could have no idea of delight, but of servitude, in these 
good works of charity ; but the angels testified that such 
good offices are compatible with the most perfect free- 
dom, and attended with inexpressible felicity." — Arcana 
Coelestia 454, 456. 

Again he says : 

" Charity is nothing unless it manifests itself in works 
of charity. It exists only in exercise, or in the perform- 
ance of uses. He who loves his neighbor as himself, 



184 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

never perceives the delight of charity except in its ex- 
ercise, or in use ; the life of charity, therefore, is a life 
of uses. Such is the life of the whole heaven ; for the 
Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses, because a king- 
dom of mutual love. Therefore every pleasure derived 
from charity, has its delight from use ; and the more 
exalted the use, so much the greater its delight. Hence 
the angels have happiness from the Lord according to 
the nature and quality of the uses they perform.' ' — 
Ibid. 997. 

Such is the nature of angelic life — the life which we 
are all made capable of attaining, and which the Lord is 
forever seeking to develop or build up within us. Such 
is the character of that heavenly kingdom whereof the 
Bible so often speaks — a kingdom of righteousness, joy 
and peace — a kingdom of pure and loving hearts — the 
very kingdom for which we pray when we breathe that 
inspired petition, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be 
done on earth as it is done in heaven." 

And people are continually passing into that kingdom 
— passing from earth to heaven. What class of people ? 
The Bible tells us. All those righteous ones who walked, 
while here below, in the law of the Lord ; — those lowly 
ones who, through repentance and regeneration, have 
become as little children ; — the meek, the merciful, the 
poor in spirit, the pure in heart, those who have prac- 
ticed self-denial, and earnestly sought to do the will of 
the Father which is in the heavens. 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 85 

We thus see what the kingdom of heaven is \ and that 
all who enter that kingdom after death, must have heaven 
within themselves. That is, they must carry the loves 
and purposes that rule in heaven, and be able to find de- 
light in such works as are delightful to the angels. 

But there is another kingdom in the spiritual realm of 
which the Bible tells us — a hell of devils. These, too, 
are arranged, in like manner as the angels, into many 
different societies according to the kinds and degrees of 
evil in which they are. Nor is there anything arbitrary 
or compulsory in this arrangement. They come into it 
in perfect freedom. Each one goes into the society for 
which he has an affinity — into the one whose general 
character is nearest like his own. And these societies of 
evil spirits, like those in heaven, are all so united, that 
together they constitute one huge monster, called in 
Scripture "the Devil." 

The character of these evil spirits is quite the opposite 
of that of the angels. They have no love of the Lord 
or the neighbor; and therefore know nothing of the 
heavenly delight resulting from the exercise of this love. 
The love of self is the supreme and ruling love of them 
all ; and this is real hatred toward those who refuse to 
minister to its gratification. 

And as self-love is the source of all other evil loves 
when it reigns supreme, therefore the devils are thor- 
oughly immersed in evil. They are full of hatred, 

malice, craft and subtlety; — full of falsehood, tyranny, 
16* 



l36 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

cunning and cruelty. Their life is one of unmitigated 
selfishness. It is their delight to do all manner of mis- 
chief; — to foment hatreds, strifes and divisions; — to stir 
up envies, jealousies and revenges \ — to intensify all the 
worst passions of the human heart ; — to blind, and mis- 
lead, and if possible make slaves of, all who come within 
the sphere of their influence. 

Such, briefly, is the character of that legion of infer- 
nals in the spiritual world, who, taken collectively, are 
called the Devil. What a contrast to the character 
of those shining ones in the realms above ! 

Consider, now, that as to our spirits we are always 
living in the spiritual world, even while clothed with 
material flesh and blood ; and are actually associated 
with one or the other class of spirits above described. 
We may flee the society of persons in the flesh ; but we 
can never be alone. We can never rid ourselves of the 
society of spirits. Wherever we are, an invisible com- 
pany attends us — in solitude no less than in society. We 
do not see them, nor sensibly perceive their influence. 
Yet their presence is none the less real on that account, 
nor their influence less positive. We do not hear their 
voices — certainly not with our outward ears ; yet they 
converse with us during all our waking hours. Through 
the intricate and mysterious galleries of the soul they 
whisper to us a blessed gospel of peace and good will — 
thoughts of kindness, usefulness, justice, mercy, forbear- 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 187 

ance, benevolence, and willing self-sacrifice for the good 
of others ; or they suggest ways and means whereby our 
pride, vanity, ambition, lust of dominion, love of ease 
or pleasure, or selfish greed of gain, may most surely be 
gratified. 

Yes : one or the other of these two classes of spirits, — 
according as we are more willing to listen to the soft 
pleadings of the angels, or to be beguiled by the glazing 
flattery of devils, — one or the other of these classes are 
our intimate associates, our bosom companions. Of one 
or the other we take counsel day by day, however uncon- 
scious we may be of the fact. To one or the other we 
listen from hour to hour. With one or the other we 
think and feel and act in the ordinary intercourse of our 
every-day life. There is no escape from this. The laws 
of our spiritual being, and the arrangements and consti- 
tution of the moral universe, render it a necessity. Our 
spirits breathe, and must breathe, the atmosphere of 
heaven or of hell. They may — oftentimes they do 
— breathe that of each by turns. 

But the Lord vouchsafes to every one the liberty of 
choice. We are as free to choose our invisible as we are 
our visible associates. Nay, we do choose them, whether 
we think of it or not. We have actually chosen them, 
though it may not be for eternity ; for we have the power 
to change our invisible as well as our visible companions. 
Indeed, the whole work of regeneration — every inward 
change we experience — involves a change in our spiritual 



1 88 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

associates, or the passing out of one spiritual society and 
the entering into another. 

And now comes the momentous question : Is there 
any way of ascertaining the character of our invisible 
associates? Is there any test whereby we may know 
with certainty whether our spirits consort with angels or 
devils ? — whether we inhale from day to day the balmy 
air of heaven, or the noxious and soul-disordering exha- 
lations of hell ? 

Most undoubtedly. There is a universal law that gov- 
erns all associations in the spiritual world — those in hell 
as well as those in heaven. It is the law of spiritual 
affinity which has been repeatedly spoken of in the fore- 
going pages. This law forever impels spirits to seek the 
companionship of those most like themselves. Under 
its operation, therefore, kindred spirits are drawn to- 
gether and held together in the same society. Those in 
a similar kind and degree of good, or in a similar kind 
and degree of evil, have an affinity for each other. 
They love to be together. Their sphere is mutually 
agreeable. Therefore they gravitate toward each other 
by force of mutual attraction. 

And it is this same law which determines the character 
of our invisible companions. Through its operation, 
spirits are attracted to us who are similar in character to 
ourselves. The prevailing tenor of our thoughts and 
affections — the nature of the love that rules in our hearts 
— the kind of motives from which we generally act — 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 89 

the principles which govern us in our ordinary inter- 
course with men — these are the indices which reveal the 
character of our spiritual associates. If our prevailing 
desire and effort be to know and do the will of the Lord, 
then angels are our companions ;• our spirits consort with 
the white-robed throng \ we breathe the atmosphere of 
heaven. 

But if our ends be mean and selfish ; if we are heed- 
less of the Divine commands, or deaf to the still small 
voice of duty ; if our prevailing purpose be to do our own 
will- rather than the will of God ; then, our spiritual asso- 
ciates belong to the realms below \ we are in fellowship 
with devils; we breathe the polluting air of hell. 

We have but to look, therefore, at our governing prin- 
ciples of action — at our dominant feelings, dispositions 
and motives — at our chief end and aim in life, in order 
to learn the character of our invisible associates. Accord- 
ingly Swedenborg says : — 

" All spirits are distinguished in the other life by this : 
They who intend evil to others, are infernal or diabolical 
spirits; but they who intend good to others, are good 
and angelic spirits. A man may know which class he is 
among, whether angelic or infernal spirits. If he intends 
evil to his neighbor, thinking nothing but evil concern- 
ing him, and actually doing him evil whenever it is in 
his power, and finding delight in doing it, then he is 
among the infernals, and also becomes an infernal him- 
self in the other life. But if he intends good to his 



190 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

neighbor, and thinks nothing but good respecting him, 
and actually does him good when it is in his power, then 
he is among angelic spirits, and also becomes an angel 
himself in the other life. 

" This is the criterion. Let every one examine himself 
by it. It matters not that a person does not do evil 
when he either cannot or dare not, nor that he does 
good from some selfish consideration ; such abstinence 
from the one and performance of the other, have their 
origin only in the man's externals; and these are re- 
moved in the other life, where he is such as his thoughts 
and intentions make hi*n." — Arcana Ccelestia n. 1680. 

Again he says : 

" A man's end is his very life ; for that which belongs 
to his life, or what is the same thing, to his love, he re- 
gards as an end. When the good of the neighbor, the 
general good, the good of the church and of the Lord's 
kingdom is the end regarded, then the man as to his 
soul is in the Lord's kingdom ; for His kingdom is none 
other than a kingdom of ends and uses having respect to 
the good of the human race. The angels themselves 
attendant on man, are in nothing else [or have regard to 
nothing else] but his ends. As far as a man's end is the 
same as that aimed at by the Lord's kingdom, so far the 
angels are delighted with him and unite themselves to 
him as to a brother ; but in proportion as he is actuated 
by a selfish end, the angels recede, and evil spirits from 



PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 191 

hell draw near ; for no other than a selfish end rules in 
hell. 

' ' From these considerations it is evident how important 
it is for a man to examine and know the origin of his 
affections ; and this can only be known from the end at 
which he aims." — Ibid. 3796. 

In view of what has now been said, the practical 
bearings of this question are sufficiently obvious. When 
these great truths are recognized, that man is essen- 
tially a spiritual being ; that, within our outer material 
vesture, is a spiritual and substantial body which con- 
tinues to live after the material body perishes ; that, as 
to our spirits we are now and always living in the spiritual 
world, in close companionship with an invisible com- 
pany whose character is determined by our own gov- 
erning motives and cherished purposes; that the cha- 
racter we form while here on earth will go with us into 
the other world, and continue essentially the same for- 
ever; that the spiritual associates we now choose and 
bind to us by an unfailing law, are the very ones whose 
companionship we shall prefer and seek in the life beyond 
the grave ; that we are already in hell, however uncon- 
scious we may be of the fact, if our ends and aims be 
similar to those that rule in the realms below ; and that 
our only hope of deliverance is in looking to the Lord 
in humble acknowledgment of our dependence on Him, 
and religiously obeying the laws of life that He has re- 
vealed ; — when these truths, which are all involved in 



I9 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

the New view of hell, are seen and acknowledged, the 
practical value of this view will then be perceived and 
confessed. 

For all who desire to rid themselves of the society 
of evil spirits, and to come internally into fellowship 
with the angels, will see the absolute necessity, not only 
of a good outward or moral life, but of cleansing "the 
inside of the cup and of the platter" — of acting from 
right motives — of making the love of use, or the desire 
to serve others from love to the Lord and the neighbor, 
their ruling principle of action. To this exalted state, 
therefore, will they aspire. For this they will long ; for 
this they will labor : for this they will pray. 

And fully conscious that they cannot attain to this 
state of right desire and feeling, as well as of right living, 
by their own unaided strength, they will be led to look 
beseechingly to, and humbly to acknowledge their de- 
pendence upon Him who hath all power in heaven and on 
earth; and who has said, "Without me, ye can do 
nothing." 



XIII. 

HOW TO ESCAPE HELL. 

WE have seen that hell, according to the New 
Theology, is not a place to which a certain 
class of people are at last sent against their will, as dis- 
orderly people in this world are sent to the lock-up, or 
criminals to the penitentiary; but that it is a state or 
quality of life which each one freely chooses, and which he 
strengthens or confirms by habit. It is a low condition 
of humanity — a disorderly or inverted condition — one 
in which the higher part of our nature is in absolute 
subjection to the lower, the human to the bestial, the an- 
gelic to the infernal. It is not a state of unmitigated 
misery ; for every kind of love, as we have seen, has its 
delights. The more unselfish is the love that we develop 
and strengthen — the more it is like God's own love, so 
much the sweeter and more heavenly is the delight felt 
in its exercise, and so much the purer and more exalted 
our happiness ; but the more unlike we are to God in 
character, feeling and purpose — the more supremely sel- 
fish we grow to be, and the more indifferent to the wants 
and woes and welfare of others, the lower is the form of 
17 N 193 



194 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

life or quality of love developed in die soul, and the 
nearer, therefore, does the delight experienced in its ex- 
ercise, approach' to the delights of some of the brute 
creation — to the delights of serpents, tigers, dogs and 
swine. 

In the natural world nothing is positively evil per se. 
All things are good and useful in their proper places. 
The ordure from our barns and stables, the filth and 
refuse of our filthiest cities, the droppings of wild or 
domestic fowls, and even the dead and decomposing 
bodies of animals — offensive and hateful as all such things 
are when out of place, in our parlors or libraries — are ex- 
cellent in the field or garden ; and in the hands of the 
skillful florist or agriculturist^ may be turned to profitable 
account. 

So, too, all the implanted instincts and proclivities of 
our natural humanity, including even the love of self 
with all its numerous offspring, are not wrong or sinful 
per se. They are all of them gifts of God, and in their 
proper place are good and useful. But what is their 
proper place? Not that of rulers, but of servants. 
Dogs and horses would make poor masters \ but as ser- 
vants subject to man's direction and control, they are 
very useful. In the order of man's creation, the body 
comes first. Next the bodily senses are developed ; 
then the lower parts of the mind — those lying nearest 
the body — the selfish and sensual propensities ; then the 
knowing and intellectual faculties ; then the rational and 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT 1 95 

religious. And the highest or God-like part of his na- 
ture — the spiritual and truly human — the angel (for this 
is "the measure of a man," Rev. xxi. 17) is unfolded last 
of all. But this takes place only when the man is " born 
from above," or created anew in the image of his Maker. 
In this case, none of the passions or propensities of the 
natural man are destroyed, but simply brought under sub- 
jection to the spiritual and more regal part of his nature 
— to the true and heaven-born man. In due subjection 
and subordination to the divine human love, everything 
belonging to the natural man is good and useful. 

This is plainly taught in the spiritual sense of the very 
first chapter of the Bible ; in which sense this chapter 
treats of a spiritual creation, that is, of the normal devel- 
opment of the human soul from its natural, dark, chaotie 
state, into one of heavenly order and life — into the image 
and likeness of God himself. Note the order in this 
creation. First, we have the earth without form, and 
void, — and darkness brooding over it Then comes the 
grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yield- 
ing fruit. Then the fishes and the fowls — the "living 
creatures which the waters brought forth abundantly after 
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind." Then 
"the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after 
their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth 
after his kind." And last of all the man — a living soul 
— created in the image and likeness of his Maker. 

"So God created man in his own image; in the 



*9 6 JVEW VIEW OF HELL. 

image of God created He him ; male and female created 
He them. 

"And God blessed them; and God said unto them, 
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and 
subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
that moveth upon the earth. . . . 

"And God saw everything that He had made; and 
behold it was very good." 

When truth in the understanding becomes firmly 
wedded to love in the will, or in other words, when the 
great law of unselfish love (which is the properly human 
life) comes to re^'^n throughout the soul, having complete 
dominion over all the feelings, inclinations and thoughts 
of the natural mind, then the true man is created — the 
properly human understanding and will. " Male and 
female created He them, and called their name Adam," 
that is, man. And when this is the case — when all the 
instincts, feelings, thoughts and propensities of the nat- 
ural man are brought under perfect subjection to the 
great law of love, then everything is seen to be " very 
good." The inclinations of the natural man are evil 
only when they are allowed to rule. In a state of proper 
subordination and subserviency to the celestial principle 
— the truly human — they all are very good. 

But this exalted and heavenly state, when the soul is 
so filled and pervaded by the Divine spirit that it may 
truly be said to be created "in the image of God," 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT 197 

cannot be suddenly attained. Many previous states must 
be passed through — states of inward labor, and conflict 
with the foes of " our own household." These states, 
however, are all indispensable to the final evolution or 
creation of the man; and are what is meant in the spir- 
itual sense by the six days of creation spoken of in Gen- 
esis. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 

" During regeneration the cupidities and falsities [of 
the natural man] cannot be instantly removed ; for that 
would be to destroy the whole man, seeing that the life 
of these is the only life he has yet acquired. Therefore 
evil spirits are permitted to continue with him for some 
time, that they may excite his cupidities. . . . And un- 
less the Lord defended man every moment, yea, even 
the smallest part of a moment, he would instantly perish 
in consequence of the indescribably intense and mortal 
hatred which prevails in the world of spirits against the 
things relating to love and faith toward the Lord. 

'•'The times and states of man's regeneration in gen- 
eral and in particular, are divided into six, and are called 
the days of his creation. For by degrees he is elevated 
out of a state in which he possesses none of the qualities 
which properly constitute a man, until by little and little 
he attains to the sixth day, in which he becomes an 
image of God. 

" During this period the Lord fights continually for 

him against evils and falsities, and by means of [these 

internal and spiritual] conflicts confirms him in the true 
17* 



19S NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

and the good. The time of the warfare is the time of 
the Lord's operation; therefore a regenerate person is 
called by the prophets, the work of God' s fingers. And 
he does not rest until love becomes his ruling principle ; 
then the conflict ceases. When the work has so far pro- 
gressed that faith is united to love, it is then called very 
good ; for the Lord then treats him as a likeness of him- 
self. At the end of the sixth day the evil spirits depart, 
and the good ones draw near." — Arcana Cce/estia, 59-63. 

Then comes the sabbath of the soul ; — that state of 
inward peace and rest which resembles the sweet and 
serene peace of heaven \ — a state in which the natural 
man yields a perfect and cheerful submission to the 
spiritual, or what is the same, to the will of the Heav- 
enly Father. Of this state, Swedenborg speaks thus : 

" What the tranquillity of peace of the external man is, 
on the cessation of conflict, or when he is no longer dis- 
turbed by evil desires and false persuasions, can be known 
only to one who is acquainted with the state of peace. 
So delightful is this state as to exceed every conception 
of delight. Not only is it a cessation of conflict, but life 
proceeding from an interior peace, and affecting the ex- 
ternal man in a manner that cannot be described." — 
Ibid. 92. 

What it is, according to the New Theology, to escape 
hell, must by this time be obvious. It is to escape, or 
rise out of, that low state in which the selfish propen- 
sities of the natural man — pride, avarice, ambition, love 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT 199 

of ease or pleasure, lust of power or glory — have com- 
plete dominion in the heart, and to come into that ex- 
alted and truly human state in which love to the Lord and 
neighbor have supreme control. And this is something 
which cannot be suddenly accomplished. It is a life-long 
work. 

And how shall we do it? How is the spiritual to gain 
the ascendency over the natural man ? How, from loving 
self and the world supremely, shall we be brought into a 
state to love the Lord above all else, and our neighbor 
as ourselves ? For to undergo this change, is to be lifted 
out of a hellish into a heavenly state. In other words, 
it is to escape hell, and enter upon the state denoted by 
heaven. It is to experience such an inward renewal or 
change of character, that when we enter the other world 
we shall loathe and shun the society of devils, and be 
drawn by the force of spiritual attraction to that of the 
angels. 

How to do this, is the question of questions. Yet the 
Lord has pointed out the way, and made it very plain to 
all who are willing to walk in it. He says: " If thou 
wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." But this, 
on account of our hereditary selfishness, requires the 
practice of much self-denial, and the endurance of many 
inward conflicts with the foes of our own household. 
The cross is the symbol of these conflicts ; and engaging 
in them, therefore, is what is meant in the spiritual sense 
by " taking up the cross.' ' Hence the Lord says : 



200 NEW VIEW OF HELL, 

"If any man will come after me, let him deny him- 
self, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoso- 
ever will save his life, shall lose it ; and whosoever will 
lose his life for my sake, shall find it." 

Our true life is the heavenly life — the life of pure unsel- 
fish love — the Lord's own life in us, yet perceived as ours. 
We faid or receive this life, only as we overcome or lose 
our hereditary selfish life for the Lord's sake; and this 
we can do only by denying to our natural and inordinate 
love of self the gratification which it craves, and en- 
gaging in many a fierce conflict with the evil inclinations 
which spring from that love. This is the way the Lord 
himself overcame the evil in his assumed humanity, and 
made that humanity Divine. And we, if we would fol- 
low Him, or come into full sympathy and spiritual union 
with Him (and without this there is no heaven for us), 
must do the same. That is, we must deny self, and take 
up our cross. 

" Keep the commandments," was the blessed Saviour's 
answer to the young man who " came and said unto 
Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I 
may have eternal life?" And to every inquirer in every 
age, He returns the self-same answer. And He goes 
further and specifies the commandments that are to be 
kept : " Thou shalt do no murder : Thou shalt not com- 
mit adultery : Thou shalt not steal : Thou shalt not bear 
false witness : Honor thy father and thy mother : And 
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 201 

Now the commandments may be kept — in the letter, 
at least — by one in whom there is no acknowledgment of 
the Lord, and no sense of dependence on Him. A man 
may refrain from falsehood, theft, adultery, murder, etc., 
from purely selfish and worldly considerations; — from 
fear of the law, or of losing his property or reputation, 
or from hope of winning the good esteem of others. 
He may keep all the commandments of the Decalogue, 
in the outward form, with a heart brim full of pride and 
self-conceit. He may do it in the spirit of the self- 
righteous Pharisee, who thanked God that he was so 
much better than other men. Those who keep the com- 
mandments in this spirit, are deficient in one essential 
qualification for the kingdom of heaven. They lack 
humility. They lack a sense of utter dependence on 
the Lord for whatever good they do, or whatever power 
they have to shun evil. They abound in self-righteous- 
ness. All the good they do, they regard as their own, 
and claim merit on account of it. Some of this class 
have "great possessions" — large investments in merito- 
rious deeds. 

This was the spirit in which that young man had kept 
the commandments. "All these things," he says, " have 
I kept from my youth up: What lack I yet?" And 
what was the Lord's answer? "If thou wilt be perfect, 
go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou 
shalt have treasure in heaven \ and come follow me. But 



?02 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

when the young man heard that saying, he went away 
sorrowful ; for he had great possessions." 

We may keep the commandments, then, or shun the 
deeds which they forbid, yet in such a proud spirit or 
from such selfish motives, that we shall not be shunning 
hell at the same time. We may shun fraud, falsehood, 
theft, adultery, etc., merely from fear of the law, or of 
some personal or worldly loss. In that case we shun the 
evil from prudential considerations, not because it is 
wrong or sinful in itself; and this is not really shunning 
the evil at all. 

If, therefore, we would shun hell, we must keep the 
commandments from a religious ground. We must re- 
gard the evils which they forbid, as sins against God, 
and shun them because they are sins. If our self-love 
prompts us to deceive or defraud our neighbor, or to 
take any undue advantage of his weakness or ignorance, 
or to injure him in any way, we must regard and shun 
the doing of such wrong as a sin. If we are in the habit 
of using profane language — of taking the Lord's name in 
vain — we must regard and shun this habit, not merely 
because it is ungentlemanly or disreputable, but because 
it is sinful If we are inclined to deprive another, with- 
out his knowledge or consent, of anything that justly be- 
longs to him — be it honor, property, reputation, social 
position, political or religious influence — we must regard 
and shun such robbery as a sin. If we are inclined to 
speak evil of others, to slander them — which is a kind of 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 20^ 

moral murder, for it is stabbing one in the dark — we 
must inwardly acknowledge the sinfulness of this before 
God, and shun it because it is a sin. If we are inclined 
to invade the freedom and trample on the rights of 
others, to domineer over them — over our families, our 
children, our brethren, our domestics, our employes — to 
compel them to do our will and gratify our wishes, to 
their own injury, loss, or discomfort, we must regard 
such disposition as sinful, and shun its indulgence as a 
sin. 

And so with every inclination which originates in the 
love of self, and whose indulgence is condemned by the 
Lord's commandments, being utterly contrary to their 
whole spirit and teaching. These inclinations are all of 
them but streams which flow from hell ; and their exist- 
ence and craving are indications of the presence of hell 
within us. And it is only when we regard and shun 
their indulgence as a sin against God, that we are really 
shunning hell. 

According to the New View, then, as herein unfolded, 
the way to escape hell becomes very plain. We must 
first have a clear perception and a firm conviction of 
what hell really is. We must recognize it as a state, and 
must understand the nature of that state. That is, we 
must know what kind of life or love belongs to it. 

And the next thing necessary is, a sincere desire to be 
delivered from this state. And since we have no power 
to deliver ourselves — for no man can of himself change 



204 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

his ruling love — we must rely on One who alone is able 
to deliver ; we must look to Him and pray to Him 
who hath "all power in heaven and on earth." No one 
ever was or ever can be delivered from a state of bond- 
age to evil or the love of self, without first desiring to be 
delivered. And a sincere desire for deliverance, 
implies a perception and acknowledgment of the low 
state in which we are, and from which we seek to be 
delivered. 

But the desire alone, however intense, is not enough. 
Prayer for deliverance, however earnest, is not enough. 
Confession of our clearly discerned selfishness and sin, 
however penitent, is not enough. Necessary as all these 
are, they are of no avail without a life of practical obedi- 
ence to the Divine precepts. " Not every one that saith 
unto me, Lord, Lord," says the great Teacher, "shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
will of my Father which is in heaven." We enter into 
the kingdom of heaven, just in the degree that we enter 
into that state of love to the Lord and the neighbor, 
which is the essential thing in that kingdom. And we 
enter that state by keeping the commandments, that is, 
by doing the heavenly Father's will; and a part of this 
consists in shunning, as sins against Him, the things 
which are contrary to his will. 

To come out of darkness, is to come into light. To 
escape sickness, is to enjoy health. To get rid of weak- 
ness, is the same as coming into the possession of strength. 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT 205 

And to escape hell, is to come into the opposite kingdom 
— heaven. 

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command- 
ments." This is the only way — the way pointed out by 
God's own finger — to escape hell and reach heaven. 
"The commandments" are the laws of the heavenly 
life. For all life has its laws ; and it is only by con- 
formity to these, that the blessings of any kind of life can 
be enjoyed. 

Take, for example, our corporeal life. This has its 
laws ] and these laws must be obeyed if we expect to en- 
joy physical health. Our bodies require food, and 
drink, and exercise, and sleep, and pure air, and pro- 
tection from rain and frost. These requirements are 
the body's laws — unchangeable, God-appointed laws. 
And in the degree that they are transgressed, the body 
suffers. And this suffering is the penalty with which 
the Framer of our bodies visits such transgression. The 
transgression and the suffering, the violation and the 
penalty, are inseparably connected, like cause and 
effect. 

And the soul, too, has its laws, as well as the body. 
And these can no more be violated with impunity, than 
can the laws which preside over our physical organism. 
In the violation of spiritual as in that of physical laws, 
a penalty follows with undeviating certainty ; — not a pen- 
alty arbitrarily inflicted, or in the way that human tri- 
bunals punish offenders against civil enactments, but a 

18 



Zo6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

penalty linked with transgression as effects are linked 
with causes. 

But that higher life of the soul which those come into 
who escape hell — the life which we call heavenly — the 
life which allies us to God and the angels — that which 
the Scripture calls "eternal life," whose very breath is 
that unselfish love enjoined by the two great command- 
ments — that life has to be begotten, formed, developed, 
born in us, generally after the corporeal life has reached 
maturity. This is the new birth — the birth into a higher, 
even the heavenly stata^-to which our Lord has reference 
when He says : " Except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." 

How does this new birth of the soul take place ? or 
how is this higher life developed and matured ? In the 
same way that art-life, mechanical ingenuity, industrial 
skill, oratorical or mathematical power, is developed and 
perfected. Each follows as the normal result of self- 
compelled obedience to certain principles or laws. 

Ask those who have attained a proud distinction as 
poets, artists, mechanics, scholars, statesmen, how they 
won their lofty eminence. And they will tell you that, 
under God, they are indebted mainly to their own per- 
sistent efforts \ — to their ceaseless study, their tireless in- 
dustry, their resolute struggles, their unflinching perse- 
verance, their unremitting toil. They labored while 
others lounged. They studied while others slept. They 
were busy while others were idle. They were climbing 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 207 

up the mountain while others were reposing in bowers 
of ease. 

No : Eminence in any art or profession was never 
achieved in any other way than through the individual's 
own voluntary and persevering efforts; — through the 
patient learning and faithful application of the rules of 
that art or profession. 

And so we may say, men are born into the kingdom 
of heaven — that is, born saints or angels, in the same 
way that they are born artists, mechanics, scholars, 
statesmen. For they inherit naturally the capacity or 
aptitude for each of these ; and some have by inheritance 
a larger capacity or aptitude than others. But they be- 
come neither the one nor the other without personal 
effort and much self-imposed labor ; — without first learn- 
ing certain principles or laws, and then reducing these 
laws to practice. 

Take, for illustration, the accomplished musician. 
How has he become such ? He inherited the talent or 
aptitude for music, just as we all have inherited the capa- 
bility of becoming angels. He has the musical talent 
while yet a child — but undeveloped. And so we may 
say the musician is there in potency. But as yet he is in 
embryo. The individual is all unconscious of his latent 
powers : — as unconscious of the sweet entrancing de- 
lights which the music now wrapped up and hidden with- 
in him will one day produce, as an infant before birth is 
unconscious of its yet latent capabilities, or of the joys 



208 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

of its post-natal state. Properly speaking, the musician 
is not yet born. He has only an embryonic or latent 
existence in that individual, like that of the angel in the 
unregenerate man. 

Observe, now, the manner of his birth, — for this will 
illustrate the manner in which every one who becomes 
regenerate, is born from above and becomes a true child 
of God. It will show us how we are to be brought out 
of the state in which we love ourselves supremely, into 
the opposite state of love to the Lord and the neighbor ; 
or how " the new man " created in the image of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, comes forth from "the old man 7 ' that is 
"corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. " In a word, 
it will show us how hell is to be escaped and heaven 
gained. 

First, that individual places himself, or is placed, 
under the instruction of a Master. He becomes a pupil 
— a disciple or learner. He takes lessons of a music- 
teacher. He acquaints himself with the rules of the art 
— certain musical laws — and then reduces these rules to 
practice. He does not learn all the rules at once, but 
only a few, and the very simplest at first. When he has 
practiced these for a time, then he learns other and more 
difficult rules ; and straightway proceeds to reduce these 
also to practice. 

Thus he goes on, learning and practicing the rules of 
the art. But he finds little pleasure in these first lessons. 
Pie compels himself, however, to go through with them. 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT 209 

It is all labor, task-work, drudgery, in the outset, which 
he performs reluctantly and without one thrill of delight, 
yet with the hope of some day becoming a musician. 
How stiff and clumsy his fingers are at first ! How 
slowly and awkwardly they hobble over the keys, like a 
child just beginning to walk ! How much more readily 
they go wrong than right ! And he finds it vastly more 
difficult to practice the rules, than to commit them to 
memory. But he struggles on, sometimes hopeful, some- 
times discouraged. 

At last, by dint of patience and perseverance and 
much hard parctice, the difficulties are all overcome. 
The musical laws are incarnated in him. They flow out 
from the tips of his fingers the moment he seats himself 
at the instrument. He is now able to render with facility 
and effect the most difficult compositious of Beethoven 
or Mozart. And he finds, too, that by practicing, and 
thereby learning to give faithful expression to, the laws 
that govern in the realm of music, he becomes more and 
more enamored with the art. Strange and unlooked for 
raptures transport him. He is introduced, as it were, 
into a new world. Sweet melodies are rippling all 
around him. His soul is flooded with the charms of 
music. He experiences a delight in executing, or in 
listening to the execution of, some grand composition, of 
which, at the beginning of his musical education he 
could form no conception. 

It is in this way that the musician is born ; and in 
18* 



2IO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

no other. He comes forth, not suddenly nor in any mi- 
raculous manner ; but slowly, gradually, after years of 
hard study, close application and unremitting toil. 
The student learns certain musical rules or laws, and 
then compels himself to reduce those rules to practice. 
And so at last the musician is produced, developed, 
formed, or born. 

And the painter, sculptor, architect, and mechanic are 
born in the same way. Each of these comes forth, gen- 
erally not until the physical man has attained maturity. 
The individual first makes himself acquainted with the 
rules of the art, and then learns, through patient and 
protracted effort, to reduce these rules to practice. 

And in a way precisely similar is "the new man " or 
angel born. In other words, we are introduced or born 
in a similar manner, into a state of supreme love to the 
Lord and the neighbor; — are lifted out of that low nat- 
ural state, which is hell, into that high spiritual state, 
which is heaven. And this is what is meant by being 
"born again," "born of the Spirit," "born from 
above," and "born of God," whereof the Bible speaks. 

The only possible way, therefore, of escaping the 
hellish and attaining unto the heavenly state, is, by first 
learning the laws of the higher or heavenly life, and then 
(in humble acknowledgment of our utter and constant 
dependence on the Lord) reducing them to practice. 
These laws are all contained in the Sacred Scripture, and 
are full of the Saviour's own life which is love. But 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 211 

they must be reduced to practice — they must be relig- 
iously obeyed — they must be made the laws of our life, 
before we may hope to experience the love and delight 
that are wrapped up within them. 

We cannot, of course, learn and practice all these 
laws at once. That is not expected or required of us. 
But we are to do it by little and little, just as Raphael 
learned to paint and Mozart to play. And the task of 
learning the laws of our higher life, or of receiving truths 
into the understanding merely, is comparatively easy. 
Obeying them — living them — practicing them, in the 
parlor, in the kitchen, in the office, in the shop, in the 
counting-house, in the market-place, in the school-room, 
on the farm, at the fire-side, and in legislative halls — 
everywhere and always conforming our dispositions and 
conduct to their requirements, and so weaving these laws 
into the very fabric of our spiritual being, and making 
them, as it were, a part of ourselves — this is the labo- 
rious and difficult part of the work. And so it is with 
every art, trade or profession. Learning the rules is 
comparatively easy ; reducing them to practice, is a task 
of far greater difficulty. 

Hence we may see why doing the truth is so often 
urged and so strongly emphasized in the Sacred Scrip- 
ture. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree of life. " " Why call 
ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" 
"My mother and my brethren are those who hear the 



212 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

Word of God and do it." "Whosoever heareth these 
sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken unto a wise 
man who built his house upon a rock." But "whoso- 
ever heareth and doeth them not, shall be likened unto 
a foolish man who built his house upon the sand." Who- 
soever doeth the will of the Heavenly Father," shall 
enter into the Kingdom. 

It is impossible, therefore, to escape hell and win 
heaven through faith alone ; that is, by simply learning, 
understanding, and believing the truth. Only those who 
religiously do as the laws of the heavenly life require, 
can hope ever to attain unto that life, or to have an in- 
ward experience of its joys. 

And the first steps in the way of obedience, are, like 
all first steps, the most difficult. They have to be taken 
from a sense of duty — taken laboriously, with an effort, 
through self-compulsion, and without one throb of heav- 
enly delight. They have to be taken when our natural 
inclinations urge us in the opposite direction. But as 
we go on practicing the laws of the higher life, every 
successive step becomes easier and more delightful. And 
as obedience becomes more and more the habit of the 
soul, hell and its delights recede, and the life and joy 
of heaven flow in with continually increasing fullness. 

No : not by faith alone, or by a mere knowledge and 
acknowledgment of the truth, can a man ever escape 
hell or reach heaven ; but by yielding a voluntary, 
though at first a self- compelled, obedience to the laws of 



HOW TO ESCAPE IT 213 

heavenly life. Through obedience to these laws— at the 
same time acknowledging the Lord as their source, and 
the source of all our disposition and power to obey them 
— the interiors of the soul are opened toward heaven, 
and the influx of hell is lessened, and the Lord's life 
flows in with ever-increasing power and fullness ; pre- 
cisely as, through obedience to the laws of our physical 
life, physical debility and disorder recede, and bodily 
health, strength and elasticity flow in. 

We cannot love the Lord supremely and our neighbor 
as ourselves, by simply desiring or willing to do so ; — 
no, nor by the power of faith alone however strong, or 
prayer however sincere and fervent. But this love is sure 
to flow into our hearts in the degree that we humbly ac- 
knowledge its source, and compel ourselves to obey its 
laws. Shun falsehood, fraud, deceit, adultery — all known 
evils — as sins against God, and by degrees you will come 
to hate and loathe these vices. Devote yourself re- 
ligiously to some useful calling, and you will gradually 
grow into the love of that use. Practice the laws of 
charity, and the life of charity with its delights will be 
imparted unto you- more and more. Obey the law of 
kindness, and there will be a constantly increasing influx 
of the spirit of kindness into your heart. Do justly, 
because such is the will of God, and you will grow more 
and more in love with justice. In all your dealings and 
intercourse with your fellow men, be careful to obey the 
laws of neighborly love, and to regard and shun their 



214 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 

infraction as a sin, and that love with its unspeakable 
delights will flood your soul more and more. 

But pursue the opposite course — disregard the laws of 
the soul's higher life — violate the precepts of heavenly 
charity — trample on the rules of love and justice in your 
intercourse with your fellows, and your soul will become 
emptied of the Lord's life, and more and more insensible 
to its ineffable sweetness ; your love of self will grow con- 
tinually stronger, and your heart more and more like the 
nether mill-stone ; your sympathies will become more 
contracted and deadened ; your sense of justice will grow 
more and more benumbed ; your moral perceptions more 
and more beclouded ; your appreciation of, and your 
aspirations after, the gifts and graces of heaven, more 
and more feeble. ; and the angel life in you become more 
and more marred and crushed, and the demon life more 
vigorous and flourishing. 

And thus will your soul, created with the capacity of 
endless progress in wisdom, holiness, and love, and with 
boundless capabilities of enjoyment, be lost and ruined. 
Yes — lost and rui?ied ; because, through your voluntary 
neglect or infraction of the revealed and everlasting laws 
of love — the laws of your soul's higher life, that life is 
dwarfed and spoiled, or fails to become developed with- 
in you. Having chosen darkness rather than light, you 
cannot help missing the glorious boon which you were 
made capable of attaining — Heaven and its unutterable 
delights. Verily, saith the Lord : 



HO W TO ESCAPE IT 21 5 

" What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give 
in exchange for his soul?" 

The nature of heaven and of hell is revealed. The 
way of escape from one and of entrance into the other, 
is made plain. The Lord ever watches, and waits, and 
strives to draw all unto Himself. But He uses no com- 
pulsion. He cannot force one soul to heaven. He leaves 
us all in perfect freedom ; and says to every one : 

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and 
cursing. Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy 
seed may live : 

"That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou 
mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto 
Him j for He is thy life, and the length of thy days." 

Each one is free to choose for himself. He must and 
does choose for himself. 

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, 
choose you this day whom ye will serve." 



THE END. 



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